Screening level study of pharmaceuticals in septic tanks, ground water, and surface water in Missoula, Montana
Year: 2004
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Individual septic systems and wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) are used to collect and treat sewage.Concern has been raised as to the fate o f pharmaceuticals and personal care products found in sewage, yet their fate in household or community septic systems is poorly known.The use o f septic tanks is widespread as approximately 25-35% o f homes rely on them for waste disposal.This study attempts to characterize the occurrence and estimate concentrations of pharmaceuticals in septic system effluent, and examine the potential for the contamination o f shallow aquifers.Sewage entering a wastewater treatment plant was also sampled.The occurrence of 19 drug residues and three drug metabolites o f both prescription and non-prescription drugs in wastewater, ground water and surface water were analyzed by Time-of-Flight High Performance Liquid Chromatography/ Mass Spectrometry (ToF-HPLC-MS).Target compounds were acetaminophen, antipyrine, caffeine, carbamazepine, cimetidine, codeine, cotinine, diltiazem, erythrom ycin-18, fenofibrate, fluoxetine, hydrocodone, ketoprofen, metformin, nicotine, nifedipine, paraxanthine, ranitidine, salbutamol, sulfamethoxazole, trimethoprim and warfarin.O f all raw sewage samples, only 18 o f the 22 pharmaceutical compounds were present in septic tanks, 12 were detected in WWTP influent, and nine were detected in WWTP effluent.The most frequently detected (>50%) non-prescription drugs in the raw sewage samples were acetaminophen, caffeine, nicotine and a caffeine metabolite (paraxanthine), and a nicotine metabolite (cotinine) These compounds occurred at concentrations that were estimated to be higher than 1570-ug/L, 500-ug/L, 100-ug/L, 1000-ug/L, and 100-ug/L, respectfully.Prescription drugs examined in the raw sewage were detected in about 30% of the samples with the exception of warfarin which was detected in approximately 77% o f the samples.Other frequently detected prescription drugs were codeine, trimethoprim and carbamazepine.Ground water receiving septic effluent from a high school drain field contained measurable quantities o f caffeine, carbamazepine and sulfamethoxazole (<210-ng/mL).Samples o f shallow ground water within the unconfined aquifer underlying the city o f Missoula and the adjacent county exhibited detectable concentrations of caffeine, carbamazepine, cotinine and trimethoprim.
Source: The Mathematics Enthusiast
Author: Emily Godfrey
Language: English
Subfield: Pollution
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W855154362