Composition and river export of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) upstream and downstream of a manufacturing plant in the Cape Fear River basin (North Carolina, USA)

Pétré, Marie-Amélie

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/109885 Copy

Description

Title

Composition and river export of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) upstream and downstream of a manufacturing plant in the Cape Fear River basin (North Carolina, USA)

Author(s)

Pétré, Marie-Amélie

Issue Date

2021-04-27

Keyword(s)

• per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances
• PFAS

Abstract

Presented by: Marie-Amélie Pétré – Postdoctoral Research Scholar at North Carolina State University Co-authors: Salk-Gundersen K, Knappe DRU, Ferguson PL, Obenour DR, Stapleton HM, Genereux DP Abstract: The Cape Fear River and its upstream Haw River tributary are important sources of drinking water in North Carolina, and many drinking water intakes in the watershed are impacted by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). We quantified river export of PFAS and determined the PFAS composition of river water upstream and downstream of a plant that has been producing PFAS since 1980. River samples collected between September 2018 and April 2020 were analyzed for 13 PFAS in the Haw River near Bynum and 42 PFAS downstream in the Cape Fear River near Wilmington. At Bynum, Σ13PFAS (PFAS concentrations summed for the 13 analytes) and river export of PFAS averaged 194 ng/L (range 26-742 ng/L) and 256 g/day, respectively. Near Wilmington, Σ42PFAS and river export averaged 143 ng/L (range 40-377) and 4033 g/day, respectively. Perfluoroalkyl acids dominated at Bynum: Σ13PFAS consisted of 77% perfluoroalkylcarboxylic acids and 20% perfluoroalkylsulfonic acids, and fluoroethers associated with the plant were an important contributor to the PFAS signature near Wilmington. Considering only the 13 PFAS detected in Bynum, average river export near Wilmington (1118 g/day) was 4x higher than at Bynum, suggesting significant input of both legacy PFAS and fluoroethers between Bynum and Wilmington. Biography: Marie-Amélie Pétré received a Ph.D. degree in Hydrogeology from the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (Québec, Canada) and Mines ParisTech (France) in 2016. She was then a postdoctoral fellow in hydrogeochemistry at HydroSciences Montpellier (CNRS, France) in 2017-2019. She is currently a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at North Carolina State University, where she studies the transport of PFAS from groundwater to streams near a manufacturing plant.

Series/Report Name or Number

2021 Emerging Contaminants in the Environment Conference (ECEC21)

Type of Resource

• text
• still image

Language

en

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/109885

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