Water Science & Technology Directorate, Environment Canada, PO Box 5050, Burlington, Ontario L7R 4A6, Canada.
Sci Total Environ. 2013 Sep 1;461-462:348-59. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2013.05.001. Epub 2013 Jun 2.
Groundwater in urban areas can be affected by numerous wastewater sources. Distinguishing these sources can facilitate better management of urban water resources and wastewater, and protection of urban aquatic environments. A single wastewater tracer, even if ideal (i.e. low background levels, non-reactive, low detection limits, etc.), would be unable to accomplish this task. Here, we investigated the potential advantages of using a suite of anthropogenic chemicals as co-tracers to distinguish wastewater sources that contribute to groundwater contamination at two urban sites. We considered both relatively ubiquitous and non-ubiquitous tracers in wastewater. At the Jasper (Alberta, Canada) site, concentrations of an artificial sweetener, two pharmaceutical compounds, and a degradate of nicotine in groundwater were strongly correlated as co-tracers. This evidence, along with the similar spatial distributions of these co-tracers could be used to delineate and distinguish a single municipal wastewater plume. At the Barrie (Ontario, Canada) site, there was moderate to strong correlation of the wastewater co-tracers, but local differences in their distributions and in the ratios of their concentrations could be used to infer that mixtures of two or more domestic septic plumes were present in the groundwater at this site. This study demonstrates the benefit of applying a suite of tracers to urban groundwater affected by wastewater contamination. This approach should be applicable at other urban sites.
城市地区的地下水可能受到多种废水来源的影响。区分这些来源有助于更好地管理城市水资源和废水，并保护城市水生环境。单一的废水示踪剂，即使是理想的（即背景水平低、无反应性、低检测限等），也无法完成这项任务。在这里，我们研究了使用一系列人为化学品作为共示踪剂来区分导致两个城市地区地下水污染的废水来源的潜在优势。我们考虑了废水中相对普遍和非普遍存在的示踪剂。在贾斯珀（加拿大艾伯塔省）地点，地下水人工甜味剂、两种药物化合物和尼古丁降解产物的浓度作为共示踪剂呈强烈相关性。这一证据以及这些共示踪剂的相似空间分布可用于划定和区分单一的城市污水羽流。在巴里（加拿大安大略省）地点，废水共示踪剂的相关性从中等到强，但它们分布的局部差异以及浓度比可以用来推断在该地点的地下水中存在两种或更多家庭化粪池的混合物。本研究证明了在受废水污染的城市地下水中应用一系列示踪剂的益处。这种方法应该适用于其他城市地区。
