(Wastewater Re-use and Groundwater Quality – Proceedings of Symposium HS04 held during IUGG2003 at Sapporo, July 2003 – IAHS Publication 285, 2004, pp. 85–91).
An increasing number of municipalities worldwide are obtaining their drinking water from sources impaired by agricultural runoff, industrial discharge, or discharge from municipal wastewater treatment plants. Subsurface infiltration of water of impaired quality leading to groundwater recharge offers both additional treatment and storage assets. There is, however, concern that some compounds associated with potential adverse health effects can survive this treatment. The objective of this study was to investigate the fate and transport of bulk and trace organics associated with potential adverse health effects present in water of impaired quality during groundwater recharge. The fat of organics was investigated using full-scale infiltration facilities in the southwestern United States of America. The results of these studies generally demonstrated that bulk organic matter after groundwater recharge overlapped extensively with naturally-derived organic matter based upon chemical characteristics such as elemental analysis and structural analysis. Trace organics such as selected endocrine disrupting compounds and pharmaceutical residues were effectively removed during travel times of several weeks. However, some pharmaceuticals were not removed during groundwater recharge under either anoxic saturated or aerobic unsaturated flow conditions.
Groundwater recharge, Impaired water quality, Organic carbon, Persistent organic micropollutants, Soil-aquifer treatment, Water reuse
