Discharge of pharmaceuticals from a municipal solid waste transfer station: Overlooked influence on the contamination of pharmaceuticals in surface waters

Muyan Li; Shaoxin Huang; Xia Yu; Wentao Zhao; Shuguang Lyu; Qian Sui

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156317

Discharge of pharmaceuticals from a municipal solid waste transfer station: Overlooked influence on the contamination of pharmaceuticals in surface waters

Sci Total Environ. 2022 Sep 15:839:156317. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156317. Epub 2022 May 28.

Authors

Muyan Li¹, Shaoxin Huang¹, Xia Yu¹, Wentao Zhao², Shuguang Lyu³, Qian Sui⁴

Affiliations

¹ State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Risk Assessment and Control on Chemical Process, School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China.
³ State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Risk Assessment and Control on Chemical Process, School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China; Shanghai Institute of Pollution Control and Ecological Security, Shanghai 200092, China.
⁴ State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Risk Assessment and Control on Chemical Process, School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China; Shanghai Institute of Pollution Control and Ecological Security, Shanghai 200092, China. Electronic address: suiqian@ecust.edu.cn.

PMID: 35636537
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156317

Abstract

During the temporal storage of municipal solid wastes (MSWs), pharmaceutically contained in MSWs may percolate into leachates and migrate into receiving waters via surface runoff. However, knowledge of their intra-event variations during the rainfall is quite limited. To fill in this gap, we collected runoff samples in a typical MSW transfer station over the full length of a rainfall event to comprehensively characterize the pharmaceutical contamination profiles. The results showed that 18 pharmaceuticals were detected in the runoff samples with high frequencies and concentrations ranging from below MQL to 18.6 μg/L. During the rainfall event, pharmaceuticals exhibited discrepant leachabilities as a result of different sorption capacities; two concentration peaks of each pharmaceutical were observed, suggesting the leaching effect by rainwater and the potential influence of human-related rinse. A further sampling campaign for one-week-long runoff samples generated by diurnal rinse water was conducted, and the results indicated comparable mass loads of pharmaceuticals in surface runoff receiving rinse water (0.37-8250 μg) to those in rainfall runoff (0.58-1754 μg), suggesting the similar discharge of pharmaceuticals from MSW transfer stations despite the weather. The estimated per capita discharge load of caffeine, one of the typical Pharmaceuticals, from MSW transfer stations was 4383 ng capita^-1 d^-1, higher than that in other emission sources, e.g. municipal wastewater effluent, indicating an overlooked influence of MSW transfer stations on its contamination in the surface waters in Shanghai.

Keywords: Discharge load; Diurnal rinse water; MSW transfer station; Pharmaceuticals; Rainfall.

MeSH terms

China
Environmental Monitoring / methods
Humans
Pharmaceutical Preparations
Solid Waste*
Wastewater / analysis
Water
Water Pollutants, Chemical* / analysis

Substances

Pharmaceutical Preparations
Solid Waste
Waste Water
Water Pollutants, Chemical
Water