PM03 Treatment or Removal of Emerging Contaminants
Exhibit Hall
8:00 AM - Monday
(PM018) Removal of Pharmaceuticals, Hormones and Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals By Multi-Stage Drinking Water Filtration System.
Kassim, Tarek1, Rooklidge, Stephen2, Nelson, Peter1, Simoneit, Bernd3, 1 Oregon State University, Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, Corvallis, Oregon, USA2 Oregon State University, Department of Bioresource Engineering, Corvallis, Oregon, USA3 Oregon State University, College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Corvallis, Oregon, USA
ABSTRACT- Human and veterinary pharmaceuticals, hormones, and agricultural and industrial organic chemicals are a vital part of our everyday life. They come in various forms and quantities. Modern society cannot survive in its present form without these chemicals. Growth in the numbers of these organic chemicals during recent decades has been extraordinary. Research has shown that many chemicals can enter the aquatic environment, disperse, and persist to a greater extent than first anticipated. Some chemicals, such as pesticides, are intentionally released in measured applications. Others, such as industrial by-products, are released through regulated and unregulated industrial discharges to water resources. Household chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and other consumables as well as biogenic hormones are released directly to the aquatic environment after passing through wastewater treatment processes, which often are not designed to remove them from the effluents. Veterinary pharmaceuticals used in animal feeding operations may be released to the environment with animal wastes through overflow or leakage from storage structures or land application. As a result, there are a wide variety of transport pathways for many different chemicals to enter and persist in the aquatic environment. Thus, protecting the integrity of our natural water resources is the most essential environmental issue of the 21st century. The Safe Drinking Water Act mandates that the US-EPA identify and regulate drinking water contaminants that may have an adverse human health effect, and that are known or anticipated to occur in public water supply systems. Current research has indicated the contamination of the Willamette River of Oregon (the 10th largest river in the USA) by various pharmaceuticals, hormones and endocrine disrupting chemicals due to wastewater effluents. However, the river is the main water source to various Drinking Water Treatment Plants (DWTPs). Therefore, the goal of the present research is to investigate the removal efficiency of a wide range of organic contaminates in DWTPs using different solid phases and the technology of Multi-stage Filtration (MSF). MSF is a combination of course gravel pre-filtration and slow sand filtration (SSF). Horizontal roughing filtration consists of course gravel filters arranged in series from course to fine in horizontal direction. SSF is considered as the main treatment step in the entire process.
Key words: drinking water, multi-stage filtration, solid phases, Willamette River