Application of anthropogenic chemical and biological markers to characterize receiving urban waterways for untreated sanitary waste

Abstract

Contamination of natural water through point and non-point sources can degrade the quality of urban waterways risking the health of humans and aquatic animals. While the presence of anthropogenic compounds in various natural water bodies has been well studied, there is not much information in the literature on the simultaneous application of chemical and biological markers for identification of diffuse source contamination. In this work, a fingerprint for detecting untreated sewage in urban waterways is developed by associating a suite of 25 reliable chemical markers and 5 source-specific biomarkers. 12 outfall samples, 32 surface water samples, and two groundwater samples were studied. With few exceptions all target chemical markers were detected in study samples. Sucralose and acesulfame were detected in all water matrices including groundwater, and acetaminophen was detected with the highest median concentration. Human-associated biomarkers, Bacteroidales (BacH) and F-RNA-II coliphages correlated well with several labile chemical markers such as Nicotine, Caffeine, Ibuprofen and Naproxen (0.42–0.75, p < 0.05). They were also moderately to strongly associated with conservative chemical markers Acesulfame, Metformin, and Triclocarban (0.46–0.79, p < 0.05). Human mitochondrial DNA MitoH correlated moderately with labile markers nicotine and salicylic acid as well as with conservative markers Metformin and Triclocarban (0.31–0.47, p < 0.05). This study demonstrated that by associating chemical and biological markers, a robust technique was developed for fingerprinting source-specific untreated waste and fecal contamination in natural water resources.