H11B-0875:
Surface-Water to Groundwater Transport of Pharmaceuticals in a Wastewater-Impacted Stream in the U.S.

Monday, 15 December 2014
Paul M Bradley1, Larry B Barber2, Joseph W Duris3, William T Foreman4, Edward T Furlong4, Laura E Hubbard5, Kasey J Hutchinson6, Steffanie H Keefe2 and Dana W Kolpin6, (1)USGS South Carolina Water Science Center, Columbia, SC, United States, (2)USGS, Boulder, CO, United States, (3)USGS Michigan Water Science Center, Lansing, MI, United States, (4)USGS Denver Federal Center, Denver, CO, United States, (5)USGS Wisconsin Water Science Center, Middleton, WI, United States, (6)USGS Iowa Water Science Center, Iowa City, IA, United States
Abstract:
Wastewater pharmaceutical contamination of shallow groundwater is a substantial concern in effluent-dominated streams, due to aqueous mobility and designed bioactivity of pharmaceuticals and due to effluent-driven hydraulic gradients. Improved understanding of the environmental fate and transport of wastewater-derived pharmaceuticals is essential for effective protection of vital aquatic ecosystem services, environmental health, and drinking-water supplies. Substantial longitudinal (downstream) transport of pharmaceutical contaminants has been documented in effluent-impacted streams. The comparative lack of information on vertical and lateral transport (infiltration) of wastewater contaminants from surface-water to hyporheic and shallow groundwater compartments is a critical scientific data gap, given the potential for contamination of groundwater supplies in effluent-impacted systems. Growing dependencies on bank filtration and artificial recharge applications for release of wastewater to the environment and for pretreatment of poor-quality surface-water for drinking water emphasize the critical need to better understand the exchange of wastewater contaminants, like pharmaceuticals, between surface-water and groundwater compartments.

 The potential transport of effluent-derived pharmaceutical contaminants from surface-water to hyporheic-water and shallow groundwater compartments was examined in a wastewater-treatment-facility (WWTF) impacted stream in Ankeny, Iowa under effluent-dominated (71-99% of downstream flow) conditions. Strong hydraulic gradients and hydrologic connectivity were evident between surface-water and shallow-groundwater compartments in the vicinity of the WWTF outfall. Carbamazepine, sulfamethoxazole, and immunologically‑related compounds were detected in groundwater 10-20 meters from the stream bank. Direct aqueous‑injection HPLC-MS/MS revealed high percentage detections of pharmaceuticals (110 total analytes) in surface-water and groundwater samples. The results demonstrate the importance of effluent discharge as a driver of local hydrologic conditions in an effluent-impacted stream and thus as a fundamental control on surface-water to groundwater transport of effluent-derived pharmaceutical contaminants.