DETECTION OF PHARMACEUTICALS AND OTHER PERSONAL CARE PRODUCTS IN GROUNDWATER BENEATH AND ADJACENT TO ONSITE WASTEWATER TREATMENT SYSTEMS

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are used in households on a daily basis and include prescription analgesics, antibiotics, and hormone regulators as well as over-the-counter medications, fragrances, and cleansers. These PPCPs have been detected in water resources, including surface, ground, and drinking water, throughout the U.S. The behavior of PPCPs in aquatic ecosystems and their potential effects on aquatic organisms is still largely undefined. While PCPPs are generally detected at trace levels (i.e., ng to mg per liter of water), there is concern that exposure to these chemicals could pose a significant public health threat, especially to more vulnerable sub-populations such as children. In rural areas, onsite wastewater treatment systems (OWS) may be a source of PPCPs to the environment. Thus, the first objective of this study is to explore the fate and transport of PPCPs from OWSs to groundwater beneath, and down gradient from these systems, in eastern North Carolina. A second objective of this study is to characterize the environmental conditions at the sites to help determine which factors may affect the OWS discharge of PPCPs to water resources. Environmental factors that will be characterized include: soil type, soil cation exchange capacity, distances from the OWS, wastewater loading rates and various chemical properties such as pH, dissolved oxygen, total dissolved nitrogen (TDN) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC). We hypothesize that PPCP concentrations will be highest in groundwater adjacent to OWS installed in sandy, permeable soils, and that PPCP concentrations will be inversely related to distance down gradient from the systems. We have collected data from four residential OWSs in Pitt County and one in Beaufort County, NC. PPCPs most commonly detected in the OWS and in the groundwater down gradient include: caffeine, nicotine, ibuprofen, deet, and others, ranging in concentrations from 0.0019 ng/L to 10.57 ng/L.