Antibiotic and herbicide concentrations in household greywater reuse systems and pond water used for food crop irrigation: West Bank, Palestinian Territories

• Published in: The Science of the total environment Vol. 699; p. 134205
• Main Authors: Craddock, Hillary A., Panthi, Suraj, Rjoub, Younes, Lipchin, Clive, Sapkota, Amir, Sapkota, Amy R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 10.01.2020
• Subjects: Agricultural Irrigation; Anti-Bacterial Agents - analysis; Antibiotics; Arabs; Chromatography, Liquid; Herbicides; Humans; Irrigation water; Middle East; Ponds; Recycled water; Tandem Mass Spectrometry; Waste Water - analysis; Wastewater; Water; Water Pollutants, Chemical - analysis; Middle East; Recycled water; Middle East; Herbicides; Irrigation water; Antibiotics; Wastewater
• ISSN: 0048-9697; 1879-1026
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.134205

[Display omitted] •Little is known about antibiotics and herbicides in household greywater.•Samples were tested with LC/MS-MS for a wide suite of these compounds.•Antibiotics and herbicides were widely found in greywater influent.•Off-grid greywater reuse systems did not consistently remove these contaminants.•Concentrations were generally lower in irrigation pond water. Greywater is increasingly treated and reused for agricultural irrigation in off-grid communities in the Middle East and other water scarce regions of the world. However, there is a dearth of data regarding levels of antibiotics and herbicides in off-grid greywater treatment systems. To address this knowledge gap, we evaluated levels of these contaminants in two types of greywater treatment systems on four farms in the West Bank, Palestinian Territories. Samples of household greywater (influent, n = 23), treated greywater effluent intended for agricultural irrigation (n = 23) and pumped groundwater held in irrigation water ponds (n = 12) were collected from October 2017 to June 2018. Samples were analyzed using high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) for the following antibiotics and herbicides: alachlor, ampicillin, atrazine, azithromycin, ciprofloxacin, erythromycin, linezolid, oxacillin, oxolinic acid, penicillin G, pipemidic acid, sulfamethoxazole, triclocarban, tetracycline, triflualin, and vancomycin. All tested antibiotics and herbicides were detected in greywater influent samples at concentrations ranging from 1.3 to 1592.9 ng/L and 3.1–22.4 ng/L, respectively. When comparing influent to effluent concentrations, removal was observed for azithromycin, alachlor, linezolid, oxacillin, penicillin G, pipemidic acid, sulfamethoxazole, triclocarban, and vancomycin. Removal was not observed for atrazine, ciprofloxacin, erythromycin, oxolinic acid, tetracycline, and trifluralin. Pond water also contained the majority of tested contaminants, but at generally lower concentrations. To our knowledge, this is the first description of an extensive array of antibiotics and herbicides detected in household greywater from off-grid treatment systems.