TY - JOUR
T1 - Predicting the concentration range of unmonitored chemicals in wastewater-dominated streams and in run-off from biosolids-amended soils
AU - Chari, Bipin P.
AU - Halden, Rolf
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank Arjun K. Venkatesan and Kristin McClellan of The Biodesign Institute for their assistance and feedback. This project was supported in part by award number R01ES015445 from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) . The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIEHS or the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
PY - 2012/12/1
Y1 - 2012/12/1
N2 - Organic compounds such as sterols and hormones have been detected in surface waters at ecologically relevant concentrations with sources including effluent discharged from publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) as well as leachate and runoff from land amended with municipal sludge (biosolids). Greater than 20% of regulated effluents discharged into U.S. surface waters experience in-stream dilution of < 10-fold and potential impacts are particularly likely in receiving waters dominated by POTW effluents. The increasing use of biosolids on agricultural land exerts additional stress, thereby necessitating environmental monitoring for potential ecological and human health effects. Alternatively or in addition to monitoring efforts, screening for potentially hazardous chemicals can be performed using empirical models that are scalable and can deliver results rapidly. The present study makes use of data from U.S. EPA's Targeted National Sewage Sludge Survey (TNSSS) to predict the aqueous-phase concentrations and removal efficiencies of 10 sterols (campesterol, β-sitosterol, stigmasterol, β-stigmastanol, cholesterol, desmosterol, cholestanol, coprostanol, epicoprostanol, and ergosterol) as well as the putative toxicity posed by four specific hormones based on their reported biosolids concentrations using published empirical models. Model predictions indicate that removal efficiencies for sterols are uniformly high (~. 99%) and closely match removal rates calculated from chemical monitoring at POTWs (paired t-test; p= 0.01). Results from toxicity modeling indicate that the hormones estrone, estradiol and estriol had the highest leaching potentials amongst the compounds considered here and that 17 β-ethinylestradiol was found to pose a potentially significant threat to fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) via run-off or leaching from biosolids-amended fields. This study exemplifies the use of in silico analysis to (i) identify potentially problematic organic compounds in biosolids, (ii) predict influent and effluent levels for hydrophobic organic compounds (HOCs) of emerging concern, and (iii) provide initial estimates of runoff concentrations, in this case for four prominent hormones known to act as endocrine disruptors.
AB - Organic compounds such as sterols and hormones have been detected in surface waters at ecologically relevant concentrations with sources including effluent discharged from publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) as well as leachate and runoff from land amended with municipal sludge (biosolids). Greater than 20% of regulated effluents discharged into U.S. surface waters experience in-stream dilution of < 10-fold and potential impacts are particularly likely in receiving waters dominated by POTW effluents. The increasing use of biosolids on agricultural land exerts additional stress, thereby necessitating environmental monitoring for potential ecological and human health effects. Alternatively or in addition to monitoring efforts, screening for potentially hazardous chemicals can be performed using empirical models that are scalable and can deliver results rapidly. The present study makes use of data from U.S. EPA's Targeted National Sewage Sludge Survey (TNSSS) to predict the aqueous-phase concentrations and removal efficiencies of 10 sterols (campesterol, β-sitosterol, stigmasterol, β-stigmastanol, cholesterol, desmosterol, cholestanol, coprostanol, epicoprostanol, and ergosterol) as well as the putative toxicity posed by four specific hormones based on their reported biosolids concentrations using published empirical models. Model predictions indicate that removal efficiencies for sterols are uniformly high (~. 99%) and closely match removal rates calculated from chemical monitoring at POTWs (paired t-test; p= 0.01). Results from toxicity modeling indicate that the hormones estrone, estradiol and estriol had the highest leaching potentials amongst the compounds considered here and that 17 β-ethinylestradiol was found to pose a potentially significant threat to fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) via run-off or leaching from biosolids-amended fields. This study exemplifies the use of in silico analysis to (i) identify potentially problematic organic compounds in biosolids, (ii) predict influent and effluent levels for hydrophobic organic compounds (HOCs) of emerging concern, and (iii) provide initial estimates of runoff concentrations, in this case for four prominent hormones known to act as endocrine disruptors.
KW - Biosolids
KW - Endocrine disruption
KW - Hormones
KW - Modeling
KW - Sterols
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84868694625&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2012.05.042
DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2012.05.042
M3 - Article
C2 - 22682556
AN - SCOPUS:84868694625
SN - 0048-9697
VL - 440
SP - 314
EP - 320
JO - Science of the Total Environment
JF - Science of the Total Environment
ER -