Is It Time To Fight PPCPs?
There’s no question that they have found their way into our water supply and there’s evidence to suggest they are neutering fish, making birds fat, and exposing drinkers to gender-morphing side effects.
By initiating bizarre, if rare, incidences like these, the prevalence of pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) in wastewater prompts questions about the real dangers they might pose and what wastewater treatment plants should be doing to fight back.
No stranger to playing middleman between an anxious public and the frontlines of water treatment professionals, the U.S. EPA has taken the lead in assessing the risk posed by PPCPs.
The agency has conducted extensive research into the threat, collecting 24-hour composited effluent samples from 50 large wastewater treatment plants across the country. Researchers explored the presence of 56 highly prescribed pharmaceutical ingredients and determined conclusively that some of these are prevalent in wastewater.
Hydrochlorothiazide, a blood pressure medication, was found in every single sample. Metoprolol, another blood pressure medication, was found in 49 of the 50 samples. Atenolol, a beta-blocker, and carbamazepine, a seizure medication, were found in 48 samples. Twelve of the identified drugs were found in at least 40 samples.
That’s the bad news, the type of results that are likely to stoke public fears. However, the EPA remains unaffected by the possibility of any real threat to consumers.
“Measured concentrations were uniformly very low, and no drug was found at a concentration of 10 ppb,” the agency said of its findings. “This suggests that pharmaceutical active ingredients are fairly ubiquitous but present only at very low concentrations in typical U.S. wastewater.”
For now, the agency holds PPCPs in the dual limbos that are its Third Contaminant Candidate List (CCL3) and Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR). In other words, it’s monitoring the threat but presently sees no cause for serious action to combat it. As research continues, it’s possible for the threat posed by PPCPs to be elevated in the eyes of the EPA, leading to a mandated response from wastewater treatment facilities.
“Once water quality criteria are established by the EPA or where it is demonstrated that there is or would be a negative impact from the presence of specific PPCPs in effluents discharged into a receiving water or from the reuse of the effluent, then efforts should be taken to either remove them from the wastewater or potentially to control their use,” the agency said.
So, in a yet unrealized world where we need to combat the presence of PPCPs, what would the EPA recommend treatment facilities do?
“There are studies that have shown specific treatment technologies as being effective in removing some, but not all PPCPs,” the agency said. “There are also examples of advanced treatment systems that employ a combination of such technologies as microfiltration, reverse osmosis, UV and hydrogen peroxide (advanced oxidation) following conventional secondary treatment that have been shown to be very effective in removing most, if not all, PPCPs.”
Although the threat to public health remains unquantified, it’s possible that treatment in the plant will be enough to stop PPCPs if deemed necessary. The EPA is interested in studies that find natural treatment systems, like constructed wetlands, to be effective in removing PPCPs. Environmental organizations like The Groundwater Foundation (GF) believe the answer is found further upstream.
“Our message to the public has been one of properly disposing of PPCPs through a take back event of some sort,” said GF executive vice president Cindy Kreifels. “In Nebraska, we have been working with a number of other groups through a consortium called Medication Education for Disposal Strategies to get local pharmacies to take back and properly return medications for medical incineration. By getting individuals to either return their medications to a local pharmacy or to properly trash them rather than to flush or pour them down the drain, we are reducing the amount of PPCPs in the wastewater systems. We believe it is in the best interest of the wastewater systems to promote proper disposal of PPCPs.”
While the EPA and other agencies continue to monitor the threat of PPCPs, concerned parties can begin the fight by properly disposing of their pharmaceuticals and personal care products.
It’s well-documented that PPCPs reach our water, but what’s unknown is exactly what will happen after they have the chance to swirl together in a drug cocktail of chemical reaction destined for our faucets. And if that doesn’t scare you, zombies might.