Measurable levels of endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) and pharmaceutically
active compounds in environmental waters have been reported in numerous studies and have
been shown to cause sexual and developmental abnormalities in vertebrate and invertebrate
aquatic species at environmentally relevant concentrations. Specifically, compounds such as
steroid hormones and nonionic surfactant metabolites (nonylphenols) are of particular interest
because of their prevalence, their high level of potency at low concentrations, their ubiquitous
presence in wastewater, and their potentially harmful effects on the environment. Although a
few studies indicate that some of these EDCs could be partially removed or transformed during
septic treatment, we have found the steroid hormones estrone and estradiol at nearly 250 ng/L in
main tank septic effluent and nonylphenols at nearly 300 µg/L, as measured by gas
chromatography with mass spectrometry. These highly estrogenic compounds are then released
with the bulk effluent into the environment to percolate through soils into groundwater or, in
some cases, are directly discharged into receiving surface waters. This study has isolated several
variables that may impact the partitioning and transport of steroid estrogens and nonylphenols
between soil and aqueous phases through intensive batch and column studies. It was
hypothesized that the relatively high concentration of nonionic surfactants and their metabolites
discharged from septic systems would impact the soil-water equilibrium of steroid estrogens,
allowing them to spend more time in the aqueous phase and thereby increasing their rate of
transport towards groundwater. Though these co-contaminants appear to have some effect, the
overall quality of the final effluent (organic matter, turbidity, etc.) appears to be more of a
determining factor in overall transport. Results are presented from batch and column studies
that investigated transport behavior with three soil types and several co-contaminant and septic
effluent combinations. Includes 25 references, figures.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 68 KB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 8 |
| Published : | 11/01/2007 |
