[MCN] Reduce, reuse, recycle: Safe for water?

[Lance Olsen]

AMERICAN SOCIETY OF AGRONOMY - PUBLIC RELEASE: 2-MAR-2016

Reduce, reuse, recycle: Safe for water?
Pharmaceutical, personal care products show scant 
presence in crop irrigated with wastewater
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-03/asoa-rrr030216.php

What would you do without water?

Farmers in drought areas are especially concerned 
by this question. As fresh water resources become 
scarce, one option for water-conscious farmers is 
to water crops with treated wastewater. This 
effluent is becoming a more popular option for 
applications that don't require drinking-quality 
water. However, there are still questions about 
how the effluent interacts with and affects the 
rest of the ecosystem.

This is where Alison Franklin and her team at 
Pennsylvania State University come in. Franklin 
is investigating what happens to certain 
compounds that remain in the effluent after 
treatment. She wants to know, "Where do these 
compounds go?"

The chemicals that Franklin studies are 
pharmaceutical and personal care products, 
including antibiotics. Currently, wastewater 
treatment facilities are not able to completely 
remove these compounds. They frequently remain in 
the effluent in an active form.

Franklin explains, "As I learned about 
pharmaceutical and personal care products in the 
environment, I became very interested in where 
these compounds were ending up. What were the 
possible implications of these low level 
compounds in the environment on human, animal, 
and ecological health?"

Franklin and her team set out to follow the 
environmental paths of four different compounds 
found in effluent when it is used to spray 
irrigate wheat crops.

First, Franklin measured the amounts of three 
types of antibiotics and one anti-seizure 
medicine in the effluent from the University Park 
wastewater treatment plant. The water from this 
treatment plant was then used to irrigate wheat 
crops at Penn State's Living Filter site. This 
site is a special area used to test the reuse of 
effluent. Samples of the wheat straw and grain 
were collected before and at harvest time, and 
the samples were analyzed for the four different 
compounds.

"The concentrations of the compounds in the 
effluent were fairly low, so I was quite 
surprised when we were able to actually quantify 
the compounds in the samples," says Franklin.

The researchers found that the pre-harvest 
samples showed most of the compounds on the outer 
surfaces of the plant, but insignificant amounts 
in the plant parts (grain and straw). The samples 
collected at the time of harvest had trace 
amounts of all four compounds on the plant 
surface. Three of the compounds were detected in 
the plant parts. Two compounds were detected only 
in the grain and not in the straw. The third 
compound was detected in both the grain and the 
straw. However, none of the compounds were at 
toxic levels.

Many factors affect the path of a compound into 
and within the plant, such as the pH level of the 
soil and the plant, the plant species, and even 
the specific plant part. By analyzing both the 
straw and the grain, Franklin was able to have a 
better idea of how the wheat plants take up the 
compounds.

"It is preferable for the compounds to be taken 
up into the non-edible portion, like straw, 
because it minimizes risk," she explains. "By 
looking at both plant parts the study provided 
more comprehensive information about the fate of 
these compounds."

The compounds' trails have been tracked from the 
effluent to the wheat plants. So Franklin's next 
investigation will be whether the small amounts 
of compounds in the wheat plants pose potential 
health risks for humans and animals. Franklin 
admits, "It's a fine balance of protecting the 
health of the environment and organisms, yet 
managing water resources that are diminishing."

Franklin is working to understand that balance 
and determine best options for smart water use. 
Read more about Franklin's work in Journal of 
Environmental Quality. Penn State's Office of 
Physical Plant and the USDA Regional Research 
Projects W-3170 and W-2082 funded this project.
###


-- 
=======================================================================
"Electric utility executives all over the world 
are watching nervously as technologies they once 
dismissed as irrelevant begin to threaten their 
long-established business plans."

"A reckoning is at hand."

Sun and Wind Alter Global Landscape, Leaving Utilities Behind
By JUSTIN GILLISSEPT. 13, 2014

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/science/earth/sun-and-wind-alter-german-landscape-leaving-utilities-behind.html

==============================================================
  "This review  Š  deals exclusively with observed 
responses of wild biological species and systems 
Š.  "

"A surprising result is the high proportion of 
species responding to recent, relatively mild 
climate change (global average warming of 0.6 C)."

Camille Parmesan. "Ecological and Evolutionary 
Responses to Recent Climate Change." Annual 
Review of Ecol. Evol. & Systematics  2006. 
37:637-69
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