Full Description

Water samples collected at 33 sites on 23 streams throughout New Jersey and at select locations throughouta conventional water-treatment plant were analyzed to determine the concentrations of over 100 organicwastewater-related compounds (OWCs) including antibiotics and other pharmaceutically activecompounds, fragrances, flame-retardants, plasticizers, plant and animal steroids, detergent metabolites,pesticides, byproducts of oil use and combustion, and other extensively used chemicals. Many of thesecompounds are likely derived from effluent from municipal wastewater-treatment (WWT) plants. Somecompounds, however, such as pesticides and plant steroids could be derived from nonpoint or nonanthropogenicsources. Samples of raw water, settled water, filtered water, and finished water from the water-treatment plant andfrom the two streams that provide raw water to the plant were collected weekly for a 4-week period.Several compounds including fragrances, pharmaceuticals, flame retardants, and plasticizers that werefrequently detected in samples of stream water and raw-water supplies also were frequently detected insamples collected throughout the WT plant, indicating that these compounds resist removal throughconventional WT processes. Other compounds frequently detected in samples of stream water and raw watersupplies including pharmaceuticals, plant and animal steroids, disinfectants, and detergentmetabolites were not detected in samples of finished water, indicating that concentrations of thesecompounds are effectively reduced to levels less than analytical detection limits or that the compounds aretransformed through conventional water-treatment processes to degradates not determined by the methodsused in this study. Includes abstract only.

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Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 11/02/2003 Number of Pages: 1File Size: 1 file , 200 KB