{"id":385,"date":"2017-02-01T21:55:12","date_gmt":"2017-02-01T21:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/characterizing-pharmaceutical-personal-care-product-and-hormone-contamination-in-a-karst-aquifer-of-southwestern-illinois-usa-using-water-quality-and-stream-flow-parameters\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T22:16:43","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T05:16:43","slug":"characterizing-pharmaceutical-personal-care-product-and-hormone-contamination-in-a-karst-aquifer-of-southwestern-illinois-usa-using-water-quality-and-stream-flow-parameters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/characterizing-pharmaceutical-personal-care-product-and-hormone-contamination-in-a-karst-aquifer-of-southwestern-illinois-usa-using-water-quality-and-stream-flow-parameters\/","title":{"rendered":"Characterizing pharmaceutical, personal care product, and hormone contamination in a karst aquifer of southwestern Illinois, USA, using water quality and stream flow parameters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Quick Answer:<\/strong> Karst aquifer systems\u2014you know, those areas with soluble limestone and lots of interconnected cracks\u2014are super vulnerable to contamination from whatever&#8217;s happening on the surface. Granular aquifers filter water naturally, but karst systems? They just zip contaminants straight from the surface into your drinking water. Yikes. But don&#8217;t worry, advanced <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/transformation-of-endocrine-disrupting-chemicals-pharmaceutical-and-personal-care-products-during-drinking-water-disinfection\/\">water<\/a> treatment, like reverse osmosis, offers real solutions for these water quality problems. Here at AMPAC USA, we build commercial and industrial systems specifically for these needs, with certified, documented performance you can trust.<\/p>\n<p>Dodgen, L.K., et.al.,\u00a0<em>Science of the Total Environment<\/em>, 578:281-289, February 2017<\/p>\n<div class=\"abstract svAbstract \">\n<p id=\"Karst aquifers provide drinking water for a quarter of the world's population. That's a lot of people! But because of their unique geology, chemicals from the surface can quickly get into the groundwater, potentially contaminating drinking water. We've seen nitrate, chloride, and bacteria contaminate karst aquifers before, but we don't know much about \"contaminants of emerging concern\" (CECs), like pharmaceuticals. Researchers looked at 58 water samples from 13 sites in the Salem Plateau, a karst area in southwestern Illinois, USA, over 17 months. They tested for 12 pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs), 7 natural and synthetic hormones, and 49 typical water quality factors like nutrients and bacteria. Hormones showed up in only 23% of samples, with concentrations between 2.2 and 9.1 nanograms per liter. PPCPs, though, were in 89% of groundwater samples. The most common PPCPs were triclocarban, an antimicrobial, found in 81% of samples, and gemfibrozil, a heart medication, in 57%. The team combined these results with local stream flow, weather, and land use data to do a few things: 1) figure out how much CECs contaminated the aquifer, 2) group sites with similar PPCP contamination, and 3) create models to explain the contamination. On average, they found 3 PPCPs in karst groundwater, totaling 4.6 nanograms per liter. The sites fell into 3 groups, each with its own contamination patterns. In Cluster I sites, PPCP contamination linked to stream height, manganese, boron, and heterotrophic bacteria. Cluster II sites connected to groundwater temperature, specific conductivity, sodium, and calcium. Cluster III sites showed ties to dissolved oxygen and barium. Overall, no single factor or small group of factors strongly predicted PPCP contamination, but gemfibrozil levels were closely related to the total amount of PPCPs in the karst groundwater.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Source: Water Feed<\/p>\n<h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Why are karst aquifer systems particularly susceptible to water contamination?<\/strong><br \/>Karst aquifers are formed in soluble limestone with interconnected fractures and conduits, allowing for rapid transmission of contaminants from the surface directly to groundwater. Unlike granular aquifers that offer natural filtration, karst geology bypasses this protective mechanism, making them highly vulnerable to pollution from surface activities.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What emerging contaminants were identified in the southwestern Illinois karst aquifer study?<\/strong><br \/>The study identified pharmaceuticals, personal care products (PPCPs), and natural and synthetic hormones as contaminants of emerging concern (CECs). Specifically, the antimicrobial triclocarban and the cardiovascular drug gemfibrozil were among the most commonly detected PPCPs in the groundwater samples.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How frequently were PPCPs detected in the Illinois karst aquifer groundwater?<\/strong><br \/>Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) were quantified in 89% of the groundwater samples collected from the Salem Plateau karst region. The median detection was 3 PPCPs per sample, with a summed concentration of 4.6 ng\/L. Triclocarban was found in 81% of samples, and gemfibrozil in 57%.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What water treatment technologies are effective against pharmaceutical and hormone contamination in aquifers?<\/strong><br \/>Advanced water treatment technologies, particularly reverse osmosis, provide effective solutions for removing pharmaceutical, personal care product, and hormone contamination from water sources. AMPAC USA designs and manufactures commercial and industrial reverse osmosis systems specifically engineered to address these complex water quality challenges with certified performance.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What environmental factors correlate with PPCP contamination in karst aquifers?<\/strong><br \/>The study identified various environmental factors correlating with PPCP contamination, depending on the site cluster. These included stream height, manganese, boron, and heterotrophic bacteria for some sites, while others were characterized by groundwater temperature, specific conductivity, sodium, calcium, dissolved oxygen, and barium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Contamination of karst aquifers by nitrate, chloride, and bacteria have been previously observed, but little knowledge is available on the presence of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs),<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":88017,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,29],"tags":[22],"class_list":["post-385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-water-filter","category-water-treatment","tag-ro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}