Analytical Results for Municipal Biosolids Samples from a Monitoring Program Near Deer Trail, Colorado (USA), 1999 through 2006

Since late 1993, Metro Wastewater Reclamation District of Denver (Metro District), a large wastewater treatment plant in Denver, Colorado, has applied Grade I, Class B biosolids to about 52,000 acres of non-irrigated farmland and rangeland near Deer Trail, Colorado. In cooperation with the Metro District in 1993, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) began monitoring ground water at part of this site (Yager and Arnold, 2003). In 1999, the USGS began a more comprehensive monitoring study of the entire site to address stakeholder concerns about the potential chemical effects of biosolids applications. This more comprehensive monitoring program has recently been extended through 2010. Monitoring components of the more comprehensive study include biosolids collected at the wastewater treatment plant, soil, crops, dust, alluvial and bedrock ground water, and stream bed sediment. Streams at the site are dry most of the year, so samples of stream bed sediment deposited after rain were used to indicate surface-water effects. This report will present only analytical results for the biosolids samples collected at the Metro District wastewater treatment plant in Denver and analyzed during 1999 through 2006. More information about the other monitoring components is presented elsewhere in the literature (e.g., Yager and others, 2004a, 2004b, 2004c, 2004d). Priority parameters for biosolids identified by the stakeholders and also regulated by Colorado when used as an agricultural soil amendment include the total concentrations of nine trace elements (arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, molybdenum, nickel, selenium, and zinc), plutonium isotopes, and gross alpha and beta activity. Nitrogen and chromium also were priority parameters for ground water and sediment components.
In general, the objective of each component of the study was to determine whether concentrations of priority parameters (1) were higher than regulatory limits, (2) were increasing with time, or (3) were significantly higher in biosolids-applied areas than in a similar farmed area where biosolids were not applied.
Analytical results indicate that the elemental composition of the biosolids from the Denver plant was consistent during 1999-2006, and total concentrations of regulated trace elements were consistently lower than the regulatory limits. Plutonium isotopes were not detected in any of the biosolids samples for the entire sampling period. Analytical results for gross and were highly imprecise and erratic. As a result of the cancelation of regulation requiring their monitoring in biosolids, the determination of both was discontinued mid-study.
Data from this study were used to compile an inorganic-chemical biosolids signature that can be contrasted with the geochemical signature for this site. The biosolids signature and an understanding of the geology and hydrology of the site can be used to separate biosolids effects from natural geochemical effects. Elements of particular interest for a biosolids signature include bismuth, copper, silver, mercury, and phosphorus.