Leaking sewers likely to blame for large amounts of drugs in streams

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Pharmaceutical compounds can harm the environment. However, in waterways that do not receive treated wastewater, these pollutants are not expected to be present. Today, researchers at ACS Environmental Science & Technology found that the amounts of certain drugs carried by a stream in Baltimore were substantial, despite generally low concentrations over the course of a year. Because sewage treatment plants do not impact this flow, the high loads likely come from leaking sewer pipes, they say.

Thousands of drugs are approved for human use in the United States, and many are harmful to microorganisms, algae, and insects when they enter lakes and streams through the waters. worn. Concentrations of pharmaceutical compounds are generally used to determine their impact on organisms living in streams and rivers. However, contaminant concentrations can change rapidly from day to day, and therefore singular snapshots do not adequately illustrate their cumulative effects on aquatic life. Instead, loading the mass of a pollutant that crosses a stream or river over time better represents the risk to downstream environments, where the contaminants end up. While fillers are used in regulations for traditional pollutants, such as nutrients, they have not been considered for pharmaceuticals. Thus, Megan Fork and her colleagues wanted to get an idea of ​​the annual load of drugs carried by an urban flow in Baltimore.

Researchers tested water from an urban stream flowing into the Baltimores Inner Harbor in Maryland every week for a year. At the point of exit, they found 16 pharmaceutical compounds that varied greatly in presence and amount from week to week, ranging from parts per trillion to parts per billion concentrations. Trimethoprim, an antibiotic, was found most consistently, but acetaminophen, a common pain reliever, was at the highest concentrations. The team used their weekly measurements to estimate annual drug loads, calculating that the equivalent of 30,000 doses of antidepressants, 1,700 doses of antibiotics and 30,000 acetaminophen tablets entered the inner port by the stream. Interestingly, this watershed did not receive effluent from a sewage treatment plant, so it is likely that these compounds came from leaking sewer pipes. Improvements to aging infrastructure could reduce this source of harmful compounds in urban and other streams, the researchers say.

Reference: Fork ML, Fick JB, Reisinger AJ, Rosi EJ. Coastal Assay: Leaking sewerage infrastructure delivers large annual doses and dynamic mixtures of pharmaceuticals to urban rivers. About Sci Technol. 2021. doi: 10.1021 / acs.est.1c00379 This article has been republished from the following documents. Note: The material may have been modified for its length and content. For more information, please contact the cited source.

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