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Publications

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Food, beverage, and feedstock processing facility wastewater: A unique and underappreciated source of contaminants to U.S. streams

Process wastewaters from food, beverage, and feedstock facilities, although regulated, are an under-investigated environmental contaminant source. Food process wastewaters (FPWWs) from 23 facilities in 17 U.S. states were sampled and documented for a plethora of chemical and microbial contaminants. Of the 576 analyzed organics, 184 (32%) were detected at least once, with concentrations as large as
Authors
Laura E. Hubbard, Dana W. Kolpin, Carrie E Givens, Bradley D. Blackwell, Paul M. Bradley, James L. Gray, Rachael F. Lane, Jason R. Masoner, R. Blaine McCleskey, Kristin M. Romanok, Mark W. Sandstrom, Kelly L. Smalling, Daniel L. Villeneuve

Pilot-scale expanded assessment of inorganic and organic tapwater exposures and predicted effects in Puerto Rico, USA

A pilot-scale expanded target assessment of mixtures of inorganic and organic contaminants in point-of-consumption drinking water (tapwater, TW) was conducted in Puerto Rico (PR) to continue to inform TW exposures and corresponding estimations of cumulative human-health risks across the US. In August 2018, a spatial synoptic pilot assessment of than 524 organic, 37 inorganic, and select microbiolo
Authors
Paul M. Bradley, Ingrid Y. Padilla, Kristin M. Romanok, Kelly Smalling, Michael J. Focazio, Sara E. Breitmeyer, Mary C. Cardon, Justin M. Conley, Nicola Evans, Carrie E Givens, James L. Gray, L. Earl Gray, Phillip C. Hartig, Michelle Hladik, Christopher P. Higgins, Luke R. Iwanowicz, Rachael F. Lane, Keith Loftin, R. Blaine McCleskey, Carrie A. McDonough, Elizabeth Medlock-Kakaley, Shannon M. Meppelink, Christopher P. Weis, Vickie S. Wilson

Public and private tapwater: Comparative analysis of contaminant exposure and potential risk, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA

BackgroundHumans are primary drivers of environmental contamination worldwide, including in drinking-water resources. In the United States (US), federal and state agencies regulate and monitor public-supply drinking water while private-supply monitoring is rare; the current lack of directly comparable information on contaminant-mixture exposures and risks between private- and public-supplies under
Authors
Paul M. Bradley, Denis R. LeBlanc, Kristin M. Romanok, Kelly Smalling, Michael J. Focazio, Mary C. Cardon, Jimmy Clark, Justin M. Conley, Nicola Evans, Carrie E Givens, James L. Gray, L. Earl Gray, Phillip C. Hartig, Christopher P. Higgins, Michelle Hladik, Luke R. Iwanowicz, Keith Loftin, R. Blaine McCleskey, Carrie A. McDonough, Elizabeth Medlock-Kakaley, Christopher P. Weis, Vickie S. Wilson

Inclusion of pesticide transformation products is key to estimating pesticide exposures and effects in small U.S. streams

Improved analytical methods can quantify hundreds of pesticide transformation products (TPs), but understanding of TP occurrence and potential toxicity in aquatic ecosystems remains limited. We quantified 108 parent pesticides and 116 TPs in more than 3 700 samples from 442 small streams in mostly urban basins across five major regions of the United States. TPs were detected nearly as frequently a
Authors
Barbara Mahler, Lisa H. Nowell, Mark W. Sandstrom, Paul M. Bradley, Kristin M. Romanok, Christopher Konrad, Peter Van Metre

Comparison of detection limits estimated using single- and multi-concentration spike-based and blank-based procedures

Spike- and blank-based procedures were applied to estimate the detection limits (DLs) for example analytes from inorganic and organic methods for water samples to compare with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Method Detection Limit (MDL) procedures (revisions 1.11 and 2.0). The multi-concentration spike-based procedures ASTM Within-laboratory Critical Level (DQCALC) and EPA's Lowes
Authors
William T. Foreman, Teresa Lynne Williams, Edward Furlong, Dawn Hemmerle, Sarah Stetson, Virendra K. Jha, Mary C Noriega, Jessica A Decess, Carmen Reed-Parker, Mark W. Sandstrom

Pesticides and their degradates in groundwater reflect past use and current management strategies, Long Island, New York, USA

Long Island, New York, has a mix of urban/suburban to agricultural/horticultural land use and nearly 3 million residents that rely on a sole-source aquifer for drinking water. The analysis of shallow groundwater (<40 m below land surface) collected from 54 monitoring wells across Long Island detected 53 pesticides or pesticide degradates. Maximum concentrations for individual pesticides or pestici
Authors
Irene Fisher, Patrick J. Phillips, Banu Bayraktar, Shirley Chen, Brendan A. McCarthy, Mark W. Sandstrom

Quality of pesticide data for groundwater analyzed for the National Water-Quality Assessment Project, 2013–18

The National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Project of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) submitted nearly 1,900 samples collected from groundwater sites across the United States in 2013–18 for analysis of 225 pesticide compounds (pesticides and pesticide degradates, hereafter referred to as “pesticides”) by USGS National Water Quality Laboratory schedule 2437 (S2437). For the associated NAWQA st
Authors
Laura M. Bexfield, Kenneth Belitz, Mark W. Sandstrom, Delicia Beaty, Laura Medalie, Bruce D. Lindsey, Lisa H. Nowell

Landfill leachate contributes per-/poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and pharmaceuticals to municipal wastewater

Widespread disposal of landfill leachate to municipal sewer infrastructure in the United States calls for an improved understanding of the relative organic-chemical contributions to the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) waste stream and associated surface-water discharge to receptors in the environment. Landfill leachate, WWTP influent, and WWTP effluent samples were collected from three landfill-
Authors
Jason R. Masoner, Dana W. Kolpin, Isabelle M. Cozzarelli, Kelly L. Smalling, Stephanie Bolyard, Jennifer Field, Edward T. Furlong, James L. Gray, Duncan Lozinski, Debra Reinhart, Alix Rodowa, Paul M. Bradley

Mixed organic and inorganic tapwater exposures and potential effects in greater Chicago area, USA

Safe drinking water at the point of use (tapwater, TW) is a public-health priority. TW exposures and potential human-health concerns of 540 organics and 35 inorganics were assessed in 45 Chicago area United States (US) homes in 2017. No US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) enforceable Maximum Contaminant Level(s) (MCL) were exceeded in any residential or water treatment plant (WTP) pre-distrib
Authors
Paul Bradley, Maria Argos, Dana W. Kolpin, Shannon M. Meppelink, Kristin M. Romanok, Kelly L. Smalling, Michael J. Focazio, Joshua M. Allen, Julie E. Dietze, Michael J. Devito, Ariel Donovan, Nicola Evans, Carrie E. Givens, James L. Gray, Christopher P. Higgins, Michelle Hladik, Luke Iwanowicz, Celeste A. Journey, Rachael F. Lane, Zachary Laughrey, Keith A. Loftin, R. Blaine McCleskey, Carrie A. McDonough, Elizabeth K Medlock Kakaley, Michael T. Meyer, Andrea Holthouse-Putz, Susan D Richardson, Alan Stark, Christopher P. Weis, Vickie S. Wilson, Abderrahman Zehraoui

Daily stream samples reveal highly complex pesticide occurrence and potential toxicity to aquatic life

Transient, acutely toxic concentrations of pesticides in streams can go undetected by fixed-interval sampling programs. Here we compare temporal patterns in occurrence of current-use pesticides in daily composite samples to those in weekly composite and weekly discrete samples of surface water from 14 small stream sites. Samples were collected over 10–14 weeks at 7 stream sites in each of the Midw
Authors
Julia E. Norman, Barbara Mahler, Lisa H. Nowell, Peter C. Van Metre, Mark W. Sandstrom, Mark A. Corbin, Yaorong Qian, James F. Pankow, Wentai Luo, Nicholas B. Fitzgerald, William E. Asher, Kevin J. McWhirter

Use of set blanks in reporting pesticide results at the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Quality Laboratory, 2001-15

Executive SummaryBackground.—Pesticide results from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water Quality Laboratory (NWQL) are used for water-quality assessments by many agencies and organizations. The USGS is committed to providing data of the highest possible quality to the consumers of its data. A cooperator’s inquiries about specific pesticide detections in water revealed potential laborat
Authors
Laura Medalie, Mark W. Sandstrom, Patricia L. Toccalino, William T. Foreman, Rhiannon C. ReVello, Laura M. Bexfield, Melissa L. Riskin

Reconnaissance of mixed organic and inorganic chemicals in private and public supply tapwaters at selected residential and workplace sites in the United States

Safe drinking water at the point-of-use (tapwater, TW) is a United States public health priority. Multiple lines of evidence were used to evaluate potential human health concerns of 482 organics and 19 inorganics in TW from 13 (7 public supply, 6 private well self-supply) home and 12 (public supply) workplace locations in 11 states. Only uranium (61.9 μg L–1, private well) exceeded a National Prim

Authors
Paul M. Bradley, Dana W. Kolpin, Kristin M. Romanok, Kelly L. Smalling, Michael J. Focazio, Juliane B. Brown, Mary C. Cardon, Kurt D. Carpenter, Steven R. Corsi, Laura A. DeCicco, Julie E. Dietze, Nicola Evans, Edward T. Furlong, Carrie E. Givens, James L. Gray, Dale W. Griffin, Christopher P. Higgins, Michelle L. Hladik, Luke R. Iwanowicz, Celeste A. Journey, Kathryn Kuivila, Jason R. Masoner, Carrie A. McDonough, Michael T. Meyer, James L. Orlando, Mark J. Strynar, Christopher P. Weis, Vickie S. Wilson