TY - JOUR
T1 - Pharmaceuticals, herbicides, and disinfectants in agricultural water sources
AU - Panthi, Suraj
AU - Sapkota, Amy R.
AU - Raspanti, Greg
AU - Allard, Sarah M.
AU - Bui, Anthony
AU - Craddock, Hillary A.
AU - Murray, Rianna
AU - Zhu, Libin
AU - East, Cheryl
AU - Handy, Eric
AU - Callahan, Mary Theresa
AU - Haymaker, Joseph
AU - Kulkarni, Prachi
AU - Anderson, Brienna
AU - Craighead, Shani
AU - Gartley, Samantha
AU - Vanore, Adam
AU - Betancourt, Walter Quintero
AU - Duncan, Rico
AU - Foust, Derek
AU - Sharma, Manan
AU - Micallef, Shirley A.
AU - Gerba, Charles
AU - Parveen, Salina
AU - Hashem, Fawzy
AU - May, Eric
AU - Kniel, Kalmia
AU - Pop, Mihai
AU - Ravishankar, Sadhana
AU - Sapkota, Amir
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019
PY - 2019/7
Y1 - 2019/7
N2 - Agricultural water withdrawals account for the largest proportion of global freshwater use. Increasing municipal water demands and droughts are straining agricultural water supplies. Therefore, alternative solutions to agricultural water crises are urgently needed, including the use of nontraditional water sources such as advanced treated wastewater or reclaimed water, brackish water, return flows, and effluent from produce processing facilities. However, it is critical to ensure that such usage does not compromise soil, crop, and public health. Here, we characterized five different nontraditional water types (n = 357 samples) for the presence of pharmaceuticals, herbicides, and disinfectants using ultra-high-pressure liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry based method (UPLC-MS/MS). We then evaluated whether the levels of these contaminants were influenced by season. The highest level of herbicides (atrazine) was detected in untreated pond water (median concentration 135.9 ng/L). Reclaimed water had the highest levels of antibiotics and stimulants including azithromycin (215 ng/L), sulfamethoxazole (232.1 ng/L), and caffeine (89.4 ng/L). Produce processing plant water also tended to have high levels of atrazine (102.7 ng/L) and ciprofloxacin (80.1 ng/L). In addition, we observed seasonal variability across water types, with the highest atrazine concentrations observed during summer months, while the highest median azithromycin concentrations were observed in reclaimed water during the winter season. Further studies are needed to evaluate if economically feasible on-farm water treatment technologies can effectively remove such contaminants from nontraditional irrigation water sources.
AB - Agricultural water withdrawals account for the largest proportion of global freshwater use. Increasing municipal water demands and droughts are straining agricultural water supplies. Therefore, alternative solutions to agricultural water crises are urgently needed, including the use of nontraditional water sources such as advanced treated wastewater or reclaimed water, brackish water, return flows, and effluent from produce processing facilities. However, it is critical to ensure that such usage does not compromise soil, crop, and public health. Here, we characterized five different nontraditional water types (n = 357 samples) for the presence of pharmaceuticals, herbicides, and disinfectants using ultra-high-pressure liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry based method (UPLC-MS/MS). We then evaluated whether the levels of these contaminants were influenced by season. The highest level of herbicides (atrazine) was detected in untreated pond water (median concentration 135.9 ng/L). Reclaimed water had the highest levels of antibiotics and stimulants including azithromycin (215 ng/L), sulfamethoxazole (232.1 ng/L), and caffeine (89.4 ng/L). Produce processing plant water also tended to have high levels of atrazine (102.7 ng/L) and ciprofloxacin (80.1 ng/L). In addition, we observed seasonal variability across water types, with the highest atrazine concentrations observed during summer months, while the highest median azithromycin concentrations were observed in reclaimed water during the winter season. Further studies are needed to evaluate if economically feasible on-farm water treatment technologies can effectively remove such contaminants from nontraditional irrigation water sources.
KW - Atrazine
KW - Climate change
KW - Herbicides
KW - LC-MS/MS
KW - LC/MS
KW - PPCPs
KW - Pharmaceuticals
KW - Reclaimed water
KW - Waste water
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85064461839&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85064461839&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.envres.2019.04.011
DO - 10.1016/j.envres.2019.04.011
M3 - Article
C2 - 31015109
AN - SCOPUS:85064461839
SN - 0013-9351
VL - 174
SP - 1
EP - 8
JO - Environmental Research
JF - Environmental Research
ER -