The Search For Answers About Trace Organics In Wastewater

This article is part of the WERF Research Update series of guest columns, written by various program directors at the Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF). Each quarterly installment will discuss a different issue related to water quality, and will describe cutting-edge research being conducted to address the problem.

By By Lola Olabode, M.P.H
Senior Program Manager, Water Environment Research Foundation

Each day we each use products -- household cleaners, pharmaceuticals, personal care items, lawn and garden products, automotive fluids, etc. -- containing hundreds if not thousands of chemicals that may ultimately reach wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Over the last decade, our awareness has increased as analytical methods and monitoring programs have expanded. Some of these chemicals, including endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) and those in pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PCPPs), have gained considerable scientific and media attention. These and other chemicals that are present in municipal wastewater at vanishingly low concentrations — parts per trillion to parts per billion levels — are collectively called trace organic compounds (TOrCs).

The U.S. Geological Survey conducted a broad survey of the nation's surface water quality. The agency detected 95 trace chemicals in 139 rivers and streams, and science and engineering journals have cited this work more often than any other environmental report in history. The survey added to the ongoing public interest in the sources, persistence, environmental fates and potential effects of TOrCs on human and environmental health.

There are important questions that we can only partially answer: How efficient are conventional WWTPs as barriers to the dispersal of TOrCs in the environment? Where are TOrCs removed during wastewater treatment, and what are the responsible mechanisms? How should we improve the operation conventional wastewater treatment processes to manage TOrCs better? And, what is the appropriate balance between treatment cost and risk reduction?

The Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF) is expanding its research program, dedicating over $2.5 million, to seek answers to these and related questions. Our initial objectives, as directed by WERF subscribers, are to determine the treatability and environmental fates of TOrCs in wastewater. WERF is collaborating with other research partners, e.g., U.S. EPA, the U.S. Geological Survey, state agencies, universities, and others.

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