Sediment–Water Distribution and Benthic Boundary
Layer Fluxes of Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products near Wastewater
Discharge into a Tidal River Shoal
posted on 2021-05-12, 21:03authored byGregory D. Foster, Arion Leahigh
Pharmaceuticals
and personal care products (PPCPs) were measured
in porewater, sediment, and surface water at three sites near wastewater
treatment plant (WTP) discharge along a 2 km downstream transect in
a tributary shoal embayment (Alexandria, VA) of the tidal Potomac
River. A benthic diffusion layer model evaluated water-only, dissolved
organic carbon (DOC)-associated, and bioturbation mass transport pathways.
Fluxes of 17 PPCPs nearest the WTP were all in the direction of surface
water to sediment porewater (negative) with magnitudes of −0.0016
to −7.4 ng m–2 s–1. At
the next downstream site, fluxes of seven PPCPs were bidirectional
(negative and positive) and ranged from −4.8 × 10–4 to 0.0051 ng m–2 s–1. The furthest site downstream yielded fluxes of six PPCPs that were
predominantly sediment to water (positive), ranging in magnitude from
−0.0020 to 7.0 × 10–4 ng m–2 s–1. The bioturbation and water-only mass transport
coefficients contributed most to fluxes for PPCPs. The DOC-associated
mass transport term was negligible. The fluxes indicated sediments
will continue serve as a source of PPCPs 2 km downstream from WTP
discharge.