Dep. of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, The Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA, 16802, USA.
Institute for Sustainable Agricultural, Food, and Environmental Science, The Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA, 16802, USA.
J Environ Qual. 2022 Nov;51(6):1282-1297. doi: 10.1002/jeq2.20408. Epub 2022 Nov 3.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a collective name for thousands of synthetic compounds produced to enhance consumer and industrial products since the 1940s. They do not easily degrade, and some are known to pose serious ecological and human health concerns at trace concentrations (ng L levels). Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances persist in treated wastewater and are inadvertently introduced into the environment when treated wastewater is reused as an irrigation source. The Pennsylvania State University (PSU) has been spray-irrigating its wastewater at a 2.45 km mixed-use agricultural and forested site known as the "Living Filter" since the 1960s. To understand the spatiotemporal patterns of 20 PFAS at the Living Filter, water samples were collected bimonthly from fall 2019 through winter 2021 from the PSU's wastewater effluent and from each of the site's 13 monitoring wells. Crop tissue was collected at the time of harvest to assess PFAS presence in corn silage and tall fescue grown at the study site. Total measured PFAS concentrations in the monitoring wells ranged from nondectable to 155 ng L , with concentrations increasing with the direction of groundwater flow. Concentrations within each well exhibited little temporal variability across sampling events, with mixed relationships between PFAS and groundwater elevation observed between wells. Further, >84% of the PFAS present in livestock feed crops were short-chain compounds, with PFAS consumed annually by livestock fed crops harvested from the site estimated to be 2.46-7.67 mg animal yr . This research provides insight into the potential impacts of long-term beneficial reuse of treated wastewater on groundwater and crop tissue quality.
全氟和多氟烷基物质（PFAS）是自 20 世纪 40 年代以来为增强消费者和工业产品而生产的数千种合成化合物的总称。它们不易降解，一些物质在痕量浓度（ng L 水平）下被认为会对生态和人类健康造成严重影响。全氟和多氟烷基物质存在于处理后的废水中，当处理后的废水被重新用作灌溉源时，会无意中引入环境中。自 20 世纪 60 年代以来，宾夕法尼亚州立大学（PSU）一直在其 2.45 公里的混合用途农业和森林混合场地“生活过滤器”上进行喷雾灌溉。为了了解 20 种 PFAS 在生活过滤器中的时空分布模式，从 2019 年秋季到 2021 年冬季，每隔两个月从 PSU 的废水出口和该场地的 13 个监测井中采集水样。在收获时采集作物组织，以评估在研究地点种植的玉米青贮饲料和高羊茅中存在的 PFAS。监测井中总测量的 PFAS 浓度从不可检测到 155ng L ，浓度随地下水流动方向增加。每个井内的浓度在采样事件之间几乎没有时间变化，在井之间观察到 PFAS 和地下水高程之间存在混合关系。此外，牲畜饲料作物中存在的超过 84%的 PFAS 是短链化合物，每年由在该地点收获的作物喂养的牲畜消耗的 PFAS 估计为 2.46-7.67mg 动物 yr 。这项研究深入了解了长期有益地再利用处理后的废水对地下水和作物组织质量的潜在影响。
