Figure obtained from USGS Circular 1133, p. 114-135 (Click image for a larger version)

Research provides a basic understanding of the biologic, chemical, and hydrologic processes that affect partitioning into various environmental media (e.g. water, sediment and tissue) and chemical and microbial transformation. These processes can have a significant effect on the potential toxicity of a contaminant.

Emerging Chemical Contaminants

• Biodegradation of Emerging Contaminants
• In-Stream Processes
• Potential Removal by Wastewater and Drinking Water Treatment
• Swine Waste
• Transport Through the Unsaturated Zone
• Antibiotics in Spring Flush
• Biotransformation of Tributyltin in Freshwater River-Bed Sediments

Emerging Microbial Contaminants

• Swine Waste

Related Headlines

• Hormones Degrade in the Environment!
• Detergents in Streams May Just Disappear
• Wastewater Indicators Shown to Degrade in Streams
• Pharmaceuticals Found in Soil Irrigated with Reclaimed Water
• Are Pharmaceuticals in Your Watershed? Understanding the Fate of Pharmaceuticals and Other Contaminants in Watersheds
• Veterinary Medicines in the Environment
• Glyphosate Herbicide Found in Many Midwestern Streams, Antibiotics Not Common

More Information

• Emerging Contaminants Transport and Fate Bibliography

New Publications

• Concentration of organic contaminants in fish and their biological effects in a wastewater-dominated urban stream: Lozano, N., Rice, C.P., Pagano, J., Zintek, L., Barber, L.B., Murphy, E.W., Nettesheim, T., Minarik, T., and Schoenfuss, H.L., 2012, Science of the Total Environment, v. 420, p. 191-201, doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2011.12.059.
• Steroid hormone runoff from agricultural test plots applied with municipal biosolids: Yang, Y.-Y., Gray, J.L., Furlong, E.T., Davis, J.G., ReVello, R.C., and Borch, T., 2012, Environmental Science and Technology, v. 46, no. 5, p. 2746-2754, doi:10.1021/es203896t.