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Shelton SA, Kaushal SS, Mayer PM, Shatkay RR, Rippy MA, Grant SB, Newcomer-Johnson TA. Salty chemical cocktails as water quality signatures: Longitudinal trends and breakpoints along different U.S. streams. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2024; 930:172777. [PMID: 38670384 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.172777] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2024] [Revised: 04/23/2024] [Accepted: 04/23/2024] [Indexed: 04/28/2024]
Abstract
Along urban streams and rivers, various processes, including road salt application, sewage leaks, and weathering of the built environment, contribute to novel chemical cocktails made up of metals, salts, nutrients, and organic matter. In order to track the impacts of urbanization and management strategies on water quality, we conducted longitudinal stream synoptic (LSS) monitoring in nine watersheds in five major metropolitan areas of the U.S. During each LSS monitoring survey, 10-53 sites were sampled along the flowpath of streams as they flowed along rural to urban gradients. Results demonstrated that major ions derived from salts (Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, and K+) and correlated elements (e.g. Sr2+, N, Cu) formed 'salty chemical cocktails' that increased along rural to urban flowpaths. Salty chemical cocktails explained 46.1% of the overall variability in geochemistry among streams and showed distinct typologies, trends, and transitions along flowpaths through metropolitan regions. Multiple linear regression predicted 62.9% of the variance in the salty chemical cocktails using the six following significant drivers (p < 0.05): percent urban land, wastewater treatment plant discharge, mean annual precipitation, percent silicic residual material, percent volcanic material, and percent carbonate residual material. Mean annual precipitation and percent urban area were the most important in the regression, explaining 29.6% and 13.0% of the variance. Different pollution sources (wastewater, road salt, urban runoff) in streams were tracked downstream based on salty chemical cocktails. Streams flowing through stream-floodplain restoration projects and conservation areas with extensive riparian forest buffers did not show longitudinal increases in salty chemical cocktails, suggesting that there could be attenuation via conservation and restoration. Salinization represents a common urban water quality signature and longitudinal patterns of distinct chemical cocktails and ionic mixtures have the potential to track the sources, fate, and transport of different point and nonpoint pollution sources along streams across different regions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sydney A Shelton
- Department of Geology & Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, Geology Building 237, College Park, MD 20742, USA; ORISE Fellow at Pacific Ecological Systems Division, Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment, Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 200 SW 35th Street, Corvallis, OR 97333, USA.
| | - Sujay S Kaushal
- Department of Geology & Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, Geology Building 237, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
| | - Paul M Mayer
- Office of Research and Development, Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment, Pacific Ecological Systems Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 200 SW 35th Street, Corvallis, OR 97333, USA.
| | - Ruth R Shatkay
- Department of Geology & Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, Geology Building 237, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
| | - Megan A Rippy
- Occoquan Watershed Monitoring Laboratory, The Charles E. Via Jr Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech, 9408 Prince William St, Manassas, VA 20110, USA; Center for Coastal Studies, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA.
| | - Stanley B Grant
- Occoquan Watershed Monitoring Laboratory, The Charles E. Via Jr Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech, 9408 Prince William St, Manassas, VA 20110, USA; Center for Coastal Studies, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA.
| | - Tammy A Newcomer-Johnson
- United States Environmental Protection Agency, Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling, Watershed and Ecosystem Characterization Division, 26 Martin Luther King Dr W, Cincinnati, OH 45220, USA.
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Cormier SM, Suter GW. Letter to the Editor on Brent et al. (2022): "A Novel Approach to Developing Thresholds for Total Dissolved Solids Using Standardized and Experimental Toxicity Test Methods". ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY AND CHEMISTRY 2024; 43:241-243. [PMID: 38265191 DOI: 10.1002/etc.5800] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2023] [Accepted: 10/09/2023] [Indexed: 01/25/2024]
Affiliation(s)
- Susan M Cormier
- Center for Environmental Measurement and Monitoring, US Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, Ohio
| | - Glenn W Suter
- Center for Environmental Measurement and Monitoring, US Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, Ohio
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Brent RN, DeLisle PF, Sivers S. Response to Letter to the Editor on Brent et al. (2022): "A Novel Approach to Developing Thresholds for Total Dissolved Solids using Standardized and Experimental Toxicity Test Methods". ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY AND CHEMISTRY 2024; 43:244. [PMID: 38265189 DOI: 10.1002/etc.5799] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2023] [Accepted: 11/27/2023] [Indexed: 01/25/2024]
Affiliation(s)
- Robert N Brent
- College of Integrated Science and Engineering, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA
| | | | - Sarah Sivers
- Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, Woodbridge, Virginia, USA
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El Kawak M, Al Hassanieh J, Berjawi M, Jurdi M, Abiad MG, Yassin N, Dhaini HR. Cytotoxicity of water supply in a Palestinian refugee camp and a Syrian informal tented settlement in Lebanon. PLoS One 2024; 19:e0294679. [PMID: 38165866 PMCID: PMC10760689 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0294679] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2023] [Accepted: 10/31/2023] [Indexed: 01/04/2024] Open
Abstract
Deficient water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) significantly account for a high burden of disease across the globe. Lebanon, an Eastern Mediterranean lower-middle-income country with a polluted environment, a fragmented healthcare system, and an ongoing severe economic crisis, faces serious challenges in sustaining safe water supplies, especially in vulnerable communities, while also hosting the world highest refugee population per capita. This study aimed to examine the mutagenicity, and the estrogenic and androgenic activities of water supplies, across both a Palestinian refugee camp and a Syrian informal settlement. Water samples were collected from two targeted camps in Dbayeh and Choueifat, North and South of the Capital City Beirut, respectively, between the months of September and October 2022. Microbial and physicochemical properties of samples were determined, including fecal contamination, total dissolved solids, and various minerals and salts. Organic pollutants were extracted using pre-packed solid phase extraction (SPE) columns, and then mutagenicity of extracts was examined using the Ames test in two Salmonella typhi bacterial strains. The estrogenic and androgenic activities of extracts were assessed using the yeast estrogen and androgen screen tests assays (YES/YAS). Results show excessive levels of total coliforms and total dissolved solids (TDS) in samples from both sites. In addition, the water supply from the Dbayeh Palestinian refugee camp is mutagenic, while the water supply from the Choueifat Syrian informal settlement shows anti-androgen activity. Our findings provide valuable WASH baseline data in two major vulnerable communities in Lebanon, and highlight the importance of a water toxicity testing approach concomitant with a water safety plan, based on a holistic strategy that covers all stages of the water supply chain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michelle El Kawak
- Department of Environmental Health, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon
| | - Jana Al Hassanieh
- Department of Environmental Health, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon
| | - Marwa Berjawi
- Department of Environmental Health, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon
| | - Mey Jurdi
- Department of Environmental Health, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon
| | - Mohamad G. Abiad
- Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon
- The Laboratories for the Environment, Agriculture and Food (LEAF), American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon
| | | | - Hassan R. Dhaini
- Department of Environmental Health, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon
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Nietch CT, Smucker NJ, Gains-Germain L, Peck CP, Guglielmi S, DeCelles S, Lazorchak J, Johnson B, Weaver P. Using Single-Species and Whole Community Stream Mesocosm Exposures for Identifying Major Ion Effects in Doses Mimicking Resource Extraction Wastewaters. WATER 2023; 15:1-26. [PMID: 38269364 PMCID: PMC10807236 DOI: 10.3390/w15020249] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/26/2024]
Abstract
Wastewaters and leachates from various inland resource extraction activities contain high ionic concentrations and differ in ionic composition, which complicates the understanding and effective management of their relative risks to stream ecosystems. To this end, we conducted a stream mesocosm dose-response experiment using two dosing recipes prepared from industrial salts. One recipe was designed to generally reflect the major ion composition of deep well brines (DWB) produced from gas wells (primarily Na+, Ca2+, and Cl-) and the other, the major ion composition of mountaintop mining (MTM) leachates from coal extraction operations (using salts dissociating to Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, SO42- and HCO3-)-both sources being extensive in the Central Appalachians of the USA. The recipes were dosed at environmentally relevant nominal concentrations of total dissolved solids (TDS) spanning 100 to 2000 mg/L for 43 d under continuous flow-through conditions. The colonizing native algal periphyton and benthic invertebrates comprising the mesocosm ecology were assessed with response sensitivity distributions (RSDs) and hazard concentrations (HCs) at the taxa, community (as assemblages), and system (as primary and secondary production) levels. Single-species toxicity tests were run with the same recipes. Dosing the MTM recipe resulted in a significant loss of secondary production and invertebrate taxa assemblages that diverged from the control at all concentrations tested. Comparatively, intermediate doses of the DWB recipe had little consequence or increased secondary production (for emergence only) and had assemblages less different from the control. Only the highest dose of the DWB recipe had a negative impact on certain ecologies. The MTM recipe appeared more toxic, but overall, for both types of resource extraction wastewaters, the mesocosm responses suggested significant changes in stream ecology would not be expected for specific conductivity below 300 µS/cm, a published aquatic life benchmark suggested for the region.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher T. Nietch
- USEPA Office of Research and Development, Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling, 26W Martin Luther King Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45268, USA
| | - Nathan J. Smucker
- USEPA Office of Research and Development, Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling, 26W Martin Luther King Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45268, USA
| | | | | | - Stefania Guglielmi
- Pegasus Technical Services, Inc., 46 East Hollister Street, Cincinnati, OH 45219, USA
| | - Susanna DeCelles
- Pegasus Technical Services, Inc., 46 East Hollister Street, Cincinnati, OH 45219, USA
| | - James Lazorchak
- USEPA Office of Research and Development, Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling, 26W Martin Luther King Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45268, USA
| | - Brent Johnson
- USEPA Office of Research and Development, Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling, 26W Martin Luther King Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45268, USA
| | - Paul Weaver
- USEPA Office of Research and Development, Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling, 26W Martin Luther King Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45268, USA
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