Fate of 3-tert-Butyl-4-hydroxyanisole, 1,3,4,6,7,8-hexahydro-4,6,6,7,8,8- hexamethylcyclopenta(g)-2-benzopyrane and chlorpyrifos in a Conventional Wastewater Treatement Plant

Emerging contaminants (ECs) are a major concern in the environment, particularly those found in waters. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) play a key role in reducing the concentrations in the environment because compounds may be transformed under either aerobic or anaerobic conditions or may sorb to wastewater sludges and therefore be removed from waters. If these ECs are not contained or treated then effluent discharged from the WWTP and to a receiving stream may contain hazardous levels of these contaminants. Reported here is a study of the fate of three emerging contaminants (ECs): 3-tert-Butyl-4-hydroxyanisole (BHA), 1,3,4,6,7,8-hexahydro-4,6,6,7,8,8-hexamethylcyclopenta(g)-2-benzopyrane (HHCB) and chlorpyrifos. Experiments were conducted on a laboratory scale by emulating conditions of a conventional WWTP in San Antonio, TX. The goal of the research was to determine general characteristics for both sorption (to wastewater sludges) and degradation. The sorption experiments were performed by exposing the sludge to a variety of initial concentration of ECs for 24 hours. After exposure these three ECs were extracted and analyzed using gas chromatography followed by flame ionization detector (GC/FID). Sorption experiments indicated that HHCB and chlorpyrifos are more hydrophobic than BHA and, therefore, would be mostly contained in the sludges. The degradation rates for these ECs were also considered for both aerobic and anaerobic conditions using different bench-scale reactor setups for 21 days. The differences between the reactor setups included volume of reactor, amount of sludge, mode of supply of nutrients and acclimatization of sludge to the ECs. One sludge was first acclimated to EC concentrations and then used in the experiment. The acclimated reactor had reaction rate constants approximately double that of the non-acclimated sludge reactor setups and followed first order reaction kinetics. Aerobic degradation occurred more readily for all three compounds than anaerobic degradation. These experiments supported the hypothesis that the WWTPs do capture and transform most of these compounds and, therefore, limit their reach to the effluent. However it cannot be supported that the compounds in the sludge phase are degraded to very low concentrations. Because of the changing dynamics of the sludge phase with time, further work needs to be conducted on the influence of time on sorption coefficients and, subsequently the effect of these temporal changes on degradation of these compounds.