Pharmaceuticals in the Chesapeake
By Lori Rossbach
What happens to the waste your family flushes? Did you ingest an aspirin last night, blood pressure medicine, antidepressants? Smoke a few cigarettes? When a person ingests and then excretes, a portion of undigested pharmaceuticals is passed along through waste to sewage treatment plants, and then enters the Bay during effluent discharges.
Small but measurable quantities of pharmaceuticals and common household chemicals are showing up downstream from sewage treatment plants in the Chesapeake Bay (and elsewhere). What is the fate of those pharmaceuticals? Do they bind to riverine sediment, eaten by worms, that are eaten by fish, that are eaten by us? Do they grow stronger or weaker as they cycle up the food chain? How is aquatic life affected? Are we unwittingly consuming bipolar medications and female hormones when eating seafood?
What’s in the Wastewater Discharged Into Bay?
In
Human Use Pharmaceuticals in the Estuarine Environment (Pait, Warner, Hartwell, et al, 2006, NOAA’s National Centers for Coast Ocean Science, Silver Spring), water samples were collected from 14 sites near selected wastewater treatment facilities in the Chesapeake Bay to assess the presence of human-use pharmaceuticals and related compounds. Test sites were situated around Baltimore, Annapolis, Hampton Roads, Norfolk, and Virginia Beach. Thirteen of 24 compounds tested were identified, including antibiotics, antidepressants, blood pressure medications and analgesics, caffeine, and a nicotine metabolite. Carbamazapine, used to treat epilepsy and bipolar disorders, was found in 11 of the 14 sites tested. Read the full study
here (PDF).
The first national-scale study to examine pharmaceuticals in wastewater was conducted in 1999/2000, by the USGS, called
Pharmaceuticals, Hormones, and Other Organic Wastewater Contaminants in U.S. Streams, 1999-2000: A National Reconnaissance. There, biologists discovered pharmaceuticals, hormones and other wastewater contaminants downstream from areas of intense urbanization and animal production. The survey sampled 139 streams across the U.S., including the Chesapeake Bay. Eighty percent of the samples showed the presence of human and veterinary drugs (including antibiotics), natural and synthetic hormones, detergent metabolites, plasticizers, insecticides, and fire retardants. According to a June 2002 U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) fact sheet summarizing that study, “A broad range of chemicals found in residential, industrial, and agricultural wastewaters commonly occurs in mixtures at low concentrations downstream from areas of intense urbanization and animal production.” The report states steroids, nonprescription drugs, and an insect repellent are the three most commonly detected chemicals. Detergent metabolites, steroids, and plasticizers were found at the highest concentrations. Read more about the study
here.
Oxytetracycline Present in Riverine Sediments
A 2005 study,
Loosely Bound Oxytetracycline in Riverine Sediments in Two Tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay, published by Nancy Simon, of the USGS in Reston Virginia, found oxytetracycline in riverine sediments at sites upstream, at, and downstream from sewage treatment plants situated on the Yellow Bank Stream in Centreville and the Pocomoke River in Snow Hill. Sewage treatment plants and poultry manure are both potential sources, says Simon. Oxytetracycline is an antibiotic used in animal husbandry as well as aquaculture.
Simon writes that, “Reports in the literature show that pharmaceuticals used in human medicine and animal husbandry are present in soil, sediment, surface water and groundwater throughout the western world. Efforts have been made to determine the fate of these compounds in the environment, but there is a limited amount of information about environmental processes involving pharmaceuticals. Once thought to readily degrade in the environment, recent studies indicate that TCs (tetracycline antibiotics) in sediments and soils are persistent. Researchers have found that several antimicrobial agents, including oxytetracycline, persist in marine sediments.”
“My studies were conducted before the sewage treatment plant was upgraded,” says Simon. “It would be interesting to return to see if the upgrades have had any affect on the oxytetracycline levels.”
Pharmaceuticals in Soil Irrigated with Reclaimed Water
USGS scientists monitored three sites in Colorado from May through September 2003 to assess the presence and distribution of pharmaceuticals in soil irrigated with reclaimed water from an urban sewage treatment plant. Soil cores were collected before, during, and after the irrigation season on a monthly basis. Scientists then tested the soil cores and discovered the presence of 19 pharmaceuticals, including caffeine, acetaminophen, carbamazepine, codeine, nicotine, angina medications, high blood pressure medications, diphenhydramine (for the common cold), erythromycin, and fluoxetine (used to treat depression) and others. Read the study's results
here.
Wastewater Treatment Plants Scan for 130 Toxics
There are 66 major sewage treatment plants in Maryland that discharge wastewater into the Bay. Commonly, solid waste is spread over agricultural lands as fertilizer.
“In the wastewater treatment plant discharge permits, we require that all major (1 MGD or greater design flows) do three priority pollutant scans over the course of the five year discharge permits. These include approximately 130 toxics listed by the EPA and in COMAR, including metals, cyanide, and an assortment of organic compounds, including polycyclic aromatic compounds, phthalates, pesticides, and chlorinated compounds. This is only a small fraction of the thousands of pharmaceuticals that may be present,” Kim Lamphier, an educational and international outreach coordinator with Maryland’s Department of the Environment, writes in a February 4 email. “In addition, however, we require that four tests be done over the five year permit cycle measuring whole effluent toxicity (WET).”
“First, for most solid waste, it may or may not be sampled depending on where it is from. Waste from homes legally cannot be "hazardous waste", so there is no legal need to sample it; we understand that there may be household hazardous wastes, but the landfills are designed to be able to manage these materials, and we work with counties to try to limit it (by encouraging household hazardous waste collection days, etc).
“We are aware of issues relating to endocrine-disrupting chemicals that occur in many domestic products, and so end up in wastewater, sewage sludge, and household refuse at very low concentrations. We are following the issue closely, and have participated in recent symposia regarding the issue. However, at this time the regulations do not require sampling for chemicals other than those which have historically been associated with gross water pollution, e.g., nutrients, heavy metals, and similar chemicals. We are looking to guidance from researchers and EPA to help us with this issue,” Lamphier says.
Discarding Unused Pharmaceuticals
To reduce the presence of pharmaceuticals in the Bay, Maryland Department of the Environment recommends “Crush, Don’t Flush.” Do not flush unused pharmaceuticals down the toilet. Crush, place in a plastic bag, and throw away with the trash. Check online for emerging pharmaceutical take-back programs.
Call Your Representative to Action
Protecting the integrity of the environment, and specifically our water sources, is the most resounding issue we face in the 21st century. Natural resources do not belong to us, but to future generations. Prevention is less costly than restoration. Let’s pass along natural resources to the next generation enhanced, not impaired, in value. Contact U.S. Senators Barbara Mikulski and Benjamin Cardin and ask them to fight for environmental health.
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lori rossbach
may 08
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