86 Hydrogeology (Posters)

INVESTIGATION OF SOURCE CONCENTRATIONS AND TRANSPORT OF HORMONES AND PHARMACEUTICALS BENEATH ON-SITE WASTEWATER TREATMENT SYSTEMS

Paper number: 86-29
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Authors

Abstract

Numerous recent studies have shown that municipal and domestic wastewater contains hormones, pharmaceuticals, and personal-care products (HPPCPs). In this study, we analyzed samples from several on-site wastewater-treatment systems in southern Wisconsin for selected HPPCPs and total estrogenic activity. The sample set included septic effluent from both traditional septic tanks and alternative systems using advanced pretreatment technology. Caffeine and acetaminophen were the most frequently detected compounds, and all septic samples contained detectable estrogenic activity.

On the basis of laboratory column experiments using saturated glacial sediments, chlorpropamide, carisoprodol, warfarin, and carbamazepine were the most mobile of the 13 target compounds investigated. Results suggest that HPPCP mobility may be higher under anaerobic conditions that can develop beneath septic system leach fields.

We also conducted field-scale tracer tests beneath two conventional septic systems. We used bromide as a conservative tracer and monitored concentrations of caffeine, a caffeine metabolite, acetaminophen, and two acetaminophen metabolites in soil lysimeters and monitoring wells beneath and immediately adjacent to the treatment systems.