Quantification of Soil Estrogen Accumulation As Result of 25+ Years of Wastewater Irrigation.

The presence of pharmaceuticals and endocrine disrupting hormones (EDCs) in the environment is increasing. One group of EDCs, estrogenic compounds, has been found in surface and groundwater sources across the United States. Field experiments were conducted to better understand estrogenic behaviors in the soil, more specifically mobility, sorption and degradation mechanisms. Three estrogen hormones, natural and synthetic, were of interest: 17β-estradiol, estrone and 17α- ethinylestradiol. A Hagerstown silt loam which has been irrigated with municipal wastewater for over 25 years was sampled under forest and crop vegetation. The difference in organic carbon content of the soil profiles enabled us to elucidate the relationship between organic carbon content and depth of migration. An adjacent, non-irrigated control site was also sampled to establish background concentrations of estrogens from sources other than wastewater. To obtain estrogen concentrations soil cores were subsampled, extracted, and analyzed using LC-MS-MS. Duplicate cores collected from each site were also analyzed for organic carbon, pH and electrical conductivity. Total estrogen concentrations ranged from 0.13-5.54 ng/cm³ at the surface and are as high as 6.83 ng/cm³ at depth (80 cm).