Hormone and Anthropogenic Waste Indicator Runoff From Biosolids Amended Soils.

In the United States, it is estimated that about 50% of all biosolids produced are land applied. Surprisingly, relatively little research has examined the potential for steroid hormones runoff after land application of biosolids. The objectives of this study were (1) to evaluate the potential for the runoff of steroid hormones from an agricultural field applied with biosolids at an agronomic rate when subject to precipitation from a rainfall simulator, and (2) to elucidate the mechanisms controlling steroid hormones transport. Three experimental plots were established and rainfall simulations (i.e., simulating a 100-year rainfall event; approx. 65 mm/hr) were performed 5 days before, and 1, 8, 35 days after, biosolids application. The whole-water runoff samples and filtered runoff samples were analyzed to investigate the steroid hormones transport mechanisms. Samples were analyzed for 17 different steroid hormones by solid phase extraction, accelerated solvent extraction and gas chromatograph-tandem mass spectrometry.

Estrogens, androgens, and progesterone in biosolids and whole-water runoff samples were determined at concentrations ranging from below reporting levels to 8157.8 ng/g and less than 0.8 to 216.1 ng/L, respectively. Only two steroid hormones were detected in whole-water runoff samples prior to biosolids application: androstenedione (<0.8 to 1.5 ng/L) and estrone (<0.8 to 2.2 ng/L). However, runoff samples obtained at day 1 after biosolids application contained substantially higher concentrations of these steroid hormones (e.g., 17.3 to 216.4 ng/L of androstenedione and 3.1 to 15.3 ng/L of estrone). During a series of simulated rainfall events, the highest runoff concentrations of testosterone (20.8 ng/L), epi-testosterone (16.9 ng/L), dihydrotestosterone (40.8 ng/L), androstenedione (216.1 ng/L), cis-androsterone (174.8 ng/L), and progesterone (98.9 ng/L) occurred at day 1 after biosolids application. In contrast, runoff concentrations of estrone (25 ng/L), 17 alpha-estradiol (2.3 ng/L), and 17 beta-estradiol (5.9 ng/L) were higher at day 8 after biosolids application. Overall, these results indicate that biosolids amended agricultural fields are potential sources of steroid hormones, and these hormones might be transported directly to surface waters via runoff.