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Environmental Geosciences

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Effectiveness of pilot-scale wetland designs in removing estrogenic compounds from municipal wastewater plant effluent

¹ Department of Geography-Geology, Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois 61704; ewpeter{at}ilstu.edu
² Bloomington-Normal Water Reclamation District, Bloomington, Illinois 61701; present address: Undergraduate student in the Department of Geography-Geology, Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois, at the time this research was conducted.

Eric is an associate professor in the Geography-Geology Department at Illinois State University, with expertise in hydrogeology. He holds B.S. and M.A. degrees from the University of South Dakota, an M.S. degree from the University of Arkansas, and a Ph.D. from the University of Missouri.

Adam received his B.S. degree in geology from Illinois State University. While earning his degree, Adam worked part-time for the Bloomington Normal Water Reclamation District. Upon graduation in 2006, Adam began full-time employment with the Bloomington Normal Water Reclamation District. In January 2009, Adam joined the hydrogeology M.S. program at Illinois State University.

Discharge from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is a point source for 17β-estradiol (E2) and estrone (E1) into surface water systems. This work examines the potential of three pilot-scale wetland designs, a subsurface flow (SSF), a surface flow (SF), and a floating aquatic plant (FAP), to remove E2 and E1 from effluent of a WWTP. None of the three designs completely removed E1 or E2 from the wastewater effluent. Mean E2 and E1 concentrations in the effluent ranged from 32.80 to 55.54 ng/L and 73.60 to 74.80 ng/L, respectively. The SSF design reduced E2 by 27% and the FAP design reduced E2 by 13%. The surface-flow design failed to reduce E2. Effluent E1 concentrations from the different systems were not statistically different from the influent E1 concentration. Adsorption of E2 and chemical transformation of E2 to E1 appears to be the removal mechanisms. An increase in E2 concentrations in the surface-flow system and a decrease of E2 in the FAP system suggest that plants are a factor in the removal of E2. However, evapotranspiration effects complicate the ability to discern the removal mechanism.