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Occurrence, distribution, and attenuation of pharmaceuticals and personal care products in the riverside groundwater of the Beiyun River of Beijing, China

Environmental Science and Pollution Research volume 24, pages 15838–15851 (2017)Cite this article

Abstract

This study investigated the occurrence, seasonal–spatial distribution characteristics, and attenuation process of 15 pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in riverside sections of Beiyun River of Beijing. The overall PPCP levels both in surface water and riverside groundwater were moderate on the global scale, and showed higher concentrations in the dry season mainly caused by water temperature variation. Caffeine (CF), carbamazepine (CBZ), metoprolol (MTP), N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide (DEET), diclofenac (DF), bezafibrate (BF), and gemfibrozil (GF) were seven representative PPCPs, because the rest eight studied compounds occurred in low concentrations and less than 15% of the total concentration of PPCPs. Caffeine and bezafibrate, respectively, was the most abundant compound in surface water and riverside groundwater, with median concentrations of 3020.0 and 125.0 ng L−1. Total concentrations of PPCPs in surface water were much higher than those in the riverside groundwater spatially. Attenuation of PPCPs during riverbank filtration was largely depending on the sources, site hydrogeological conditions, and physical–chemical properties of PPCPs, also was influenced by dissolved organic matter and environmental physicochemical parameters. CF, MTP, DEET, and CBZ were potential groundwater attenuation contaminants; DF, BF, and GF were groundwater-enriched contaminants based on their removal rates. Predominant removal mechanism of PPCPs like CF was biodegradation. Attenuation simulation showed that the one-way supply between Beiyun River and riverside groundwater, and further confirmed Beiyun River, was the main source of pharmaceutical compounds in the riverside groundwater.

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Acknowledgments

This research was financially supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (no. 53200859462). The authors sincerely thank the staff of the Beijing Institute of Hydrogeology and Engineering Geology for their assistance with sample collections and the laboratory personnel of the South China Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP), for their help with the PPCP analyses.

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  1. Beijing Key Laboratory of Water Resources & Environmental Engieering, China University of Geosciences(Beijing), Beijing, 100083, P.R. China

    Lei Yang, Jiang-Tao He, Si-Hui Su, Ya-Feng Cui, De-Liang Huang & Guang-Cai Wang

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  1. Lei Yang
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  2. Jiang-Tao He
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Correspondence to Jiang-Tao He.

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Yang, L., He, JT., Su, SH. et al. Occurrence, distribution, and attenuation of pharmaceuticals and personal care products in the riverside groundwater of the Beiyun River of Beijing, China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24, 15838–15851 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-8999-0

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Keywords

  • Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs)
  • Riverside groundwater
  • River–groundwater interaction
  • Attenuation