PPCP COMPOUND MASS BALANCE THROUGH THE WASTE WATER TREATMENT PROCESS

Pharmaceutical and personal care products, synthetically derived or naturally occurring, are a growing component in municipal waste streams. Wastewater treatment plants are not required to document or even test for their presence or concentration in wastewater influent, effluent or sludge. Nevertheless, the presence of very small, yet persistent concentrations of these compounds may exceed amounts that cause chronic health concerns or environmental degradation. Analytical methodology using liquid chromatography linked to a dual mass spectrometer detector has improved greatly over the past several years, resulting in reproducible detection and quantification of many of these compounds in the very low parts per billion range. The Oregon Ohio Wastewater Treatment plant produces Class B sewage sludge that is applied to local agricultural fields as a soil amendment. As part of a much larger project studying the environmental and health effects of this sludge application, we have documented the fate of several classes of PPCP compounds throughout the waste stream at this treatment plant. To date, we have identified and quantified 34 individual compounds and/or metabolites in the influent, effluent and/or sewage sludge. These compounds fall into one of the following families or classes of PPCP compounds: analgesic and acidic compounds, antibiotics, antiepileptic/antidepressant/antidiabetic/antihypertensive compounds, estrogenic steroids, histamine blockers, lipid-regulating agents and stimulants. Their degradation or persistence will our future efforts to determine health and environmental impact on the Lake Erie area.