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Developing Indicators of Contamination Originating from On-Site Wastewater Treatment

Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org

Citation:  Eleventh Individual and Small Community Sewage Systems Conference Proceedings, 20-24 October 2007, Warwick, Rhode Island  701P1107cd.(doi:10.13031/2013.23976)
Authors:   Talia Chalew, Howard Weinberg
Keywords:   : septic systems, caffeine, triclosan

New synthetic chemicals are continuously introduced into the marketplace without adequate understanding of their environmental fate, including transport and degradation. This is a particular concern with conventional on-site wastewater treatment that was not designed to handle chemicals, such as drugs, that are resistant to biological degradation. It is likely; therefore, that many of them will be discharged into soils or accumulate in sludges, which will impact ground and surface water quality. With septic system failure, which occurs in nearly half the septic systems in North Carolina, may generate pools of untreated or minimally treated wastewater that can runoff into nearby streams. There are currently no means of quickly determining the impact of this pollution on surface water.

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