Integrating Engineered Wetlands with Crop Irrigation: An Evaluation of Chemical Uptake

Integrating Engineered Wetlands with Crop Irrigation: An Evaluation of Chemical Uptake Public Deposited

Last Modified

Creator

Alatorre, Ramón DC
- Affiliation: Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering

Abstract

The potential for ELISAs (Enzyme Linked Immunosorbant Assays) to track the fate of micropollutants in crops grown through irrigation with wastewater from a decentralized, engineered wetland-type reclamation system, was realized in a controlled greenhouse study. Caffeine was observed within sweet potato tissue between 0 and 9 ng/g when irrigated with tap water and between 16 and 21ng/g when irrigated with reclaimed (unmodified and spiked with elevated levels of chemical) wastewater sources, indicating uptake of between 2 and 10% of the total estimated mass applied. Analysis of a sweet potato from a local grocery store detected caffeine between 6 and 8ng/g. Triclosan was only observed within the sweet potato tissue of crops grown with the wastewater spiked with elevated levels of the chemical and, even then, only between 4 and 11ng/g, indicating less than 2% uptake of the estimated mass applied. The results indicate limited uptake of the target compounds.

Date of publication