Pharmaceuticals & Microplastics

Hi, it’s Dr. Frank with East Coast Water Quality. Remember, you can check out our other educational videos on our website, or just give us a call if you have any questions.

Today’s topic is emerging contaminants in your drinking water. By emerging contaminants, I mean contaminants that the EPA is not currently requiring wastewater treatment plants or drinking water treatment operators to routinely test for, but that are commonly found in drinking water, whether it comes from a private well, bottled water, or a community water system.

The two emerging contaminants I want to focus on today are pharmaceuticals and microplastics. They’re two of the biggest topics of discussion right now.

Let’s start with pharmaceuticals. There are several ways they can enter your drinking water.

One source is pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities. Wastewater from these facilities is sent to wastewater treatment plants, but even advanced treatment technologies are not always designed to remove pharmaceutical compounds. That treated wastewater is eventually discharged into rivers, lakes, or streams.

Another, and probably the most common, source is human excretion. People take prescription medications, and those compounds pass through the body. They then enter septic systems, where they can migrate into groundwater, or they travel to wastewater treatment plants, which often struggle to remove them effectively. At this time, the EPA does not generally require routine testing for many of these pharmaceutical compounds.

A third pathway is through wastewater treatment plant residuals, such as sludge and treated effluent, which can eventually make their way back into the environment.

Many conventional drinking water treatment technologies are not specifically designed to remove pharmaceuticals from drinking water.

The second emerging contaminant is microplastics. This is an active area of scientific research.

Microplastics come from many different sources. One example is the wear and tear of vehicle tires. As tires break down, they create increasingly smaller plastic particles that are washed by rainwater into streams, rivers, and lakes.

Those particles are then consumed by small organisms, fish, and other aquatic life. As larger organisms consume smaller ones, the plastics can bioaccumulate throughout the food chain.

Microplastics can also come from discarded plastic products, including plastic bottles. As these materials slowly break down in landfills over many years, tiny plastic particles can eventually enter the surrounding environment.

Like pharmaceuticals, water treatment operators are not currently required to routinely test for microplastics. As a result, we still have much to learn about how effectively existing treatment systems remove them before the water reaches your home.

There are technologies that perform very well at reducing both pharmaceuticals and microplastics. What I have in my own home, and what I recommend, is a reverse osmosis system. Reverse osmosis uses a specialized membrane that allows water molecules to pass through while rejecting many larger contaminants. That membrane does an excellent job of reducing many pharmaceuticals and microplastics from drinking water.

Some of the pharmaceuticals most commonly detected in drinking water across the United States are medications that many people take every day, including anti-seizure medications and blood pressure medications. Unfortunately, many conventional water treatment technologies used throughout the country are not designed to remove these compounds effectively, and in many cases, they’re not required to test for them.

Hopefully you found this video educational and useful. While we don’t yet have all the answers about pharmaceuticals and microplastics, the research community is actively studying these contaminants. Water treatment professionals and utilities are also continuing to implement technologies, such as reverse osmosis, that can remove many of these contaminants and help provide cleaner, safer drinking water.

Thank you, and have a great day.