DOI: 10.1038/NGEO2984
论文题名: High levels of endocrine pollutants in US streams during low flow due to insufficient wastewater dilution
作者: Rice J. ; Westerho P.
刊名: Nature Geoscience
ISSN: 17520894
出版年: 2017
卷: 10, 期: 8 起始页码: 587
结束页码: 591
语种: 英语
Scopus关键词: aquatic environment
; chemical pollutant
; discharge
; endocrine disruptor
; environmental risk
; riparian vegetation
; river discharge
; river system
; stream
; streamflow
; wastewater
; watershed
; United States
英文摘要: Wastewater discharges from publicly owned treatment works are a significant source of endocrine disruptors and other contaminants to the aquatic environment in the US. Although remaining pollutants in wastewater pose environmental risks, treated wastewater is also a primary source of stream flow, which in turn is critical in maintaining many aquatic and riparian wildlife habitats. Here we calculate the dilution factor-the ratio of flow in the stream receiving discharge to the flow of wastewater discharge-for over 14,000 receiving streams in the continental US using streamflow observations and a spatially explicit watershed-scale hydraulic model.We found that wastewater discharges make up more than 50% of in-stream flow for over 900 streams. However, in 1,049 streams that experienced exceptional low-flow conditions, the dilution factors in 635 of those streams fell so low during those conditions that the safety threshold for concentrations of one endocrine disrupting compound was exceeded, and in roughly a third of those streams, the threshold was exceeded for two compounds. We suggest that streams are vulnerable to public wastewater discharge of contaminants under low-flow conditions, at a time when wastewater discharges are likely to be most important for maintaining stream flow for smaller sized river systems. © 2017 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature. All rights reserved. Citation statistics:
资源类型: 期刊论文
标识符: http://119.78.100.158/handle/2HF3EXSE/105741
Appears in Collections: 气候减缓与适应 科学计划与规划
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作者单位: Edmund T. Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States; School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States
Recommended Citation:
Rice J.,Westerho P.. High levels of endocrine pollutants in US streams during low flow due to insufficient wastewater dilution[J]. Nature Geoscience,2017-01-01,10(8)