Fate of Personal Care Products and Pharmaceuticals and Growth Response for Reclaimed Water Irrigated Turf Grass

Abstract

Many pharmaceuticals and personal care products or PCPPs enter and leave wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) unaltered or incompletely removed and are subsequently released into the environment through wastewater outflows or solids application. Fish exposed to PPCPs in wastewater outflows have been shown to exhibit intersex characteristics. Instead of releasing effluent into streams, wastewater can be further treated and beneficially reused for irrigation of golf courses, farmland or forestry plantations. In addition, biosolids can be used in place of costly fertilizers. However, the persistence of PCPPs once applied to a soil system, such as a golf course, has yet to be quantified. This study was conducted to assess the benefits and potential for exposure to PCPPs by turf grass irrigated with reclaimed water or fertilized with biosolids. Turf grass collected from the Foster Links Golf Course in Tukwila was irrigated with Class A sand filter treated water from the King County WWTP in Renton in a greenhouse study. The biosolids were obtained from the West Point Treatment Plant. The PCPPs that were monitored for mobility through the soil, presence in the soils at the end of the growing period, and uptake into leaf tissue included: the estrogens: estriol (E1), 17β-estradiol (E2) and ethinylestradiol (EE2), the pharmaceutical ibuprofen, and the antimicrobial triclosan. A review of the behavior of each of these compounds in the environment follows.