Occurrence, Characteristics, Transport, and Fate of Pesticides, Pharmaceuticals, Industrial Products, and Personal Care Products at Riverbank Filtration Sites

Organic compounds potentially can be transported from the river to riverbank-filtered water into public-water supplies. On a global scale, the total production of organic compounds, such as pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and personal care products, has increased during the last few decades. This increased production and load has increased the presence of these products and their degradates in rivers. On the other hand, the use of riverbank-filtered water is still increasing in many nations. For a long time, the interaction between the river and aquifer had not been recognized, but this interaction has received much more attention in the last two decades. People used to believe that aquifer media could filter out all potentially harmful components. As our knowledge about the occurrence, transport, and fate of organic compounds has increased over time and our analytical techniques have improved from parts per million, to parts per billion, down to parts per trillion concentrations, concerns about the presence of organic compounds in our drinking water and their effect on public health also have increased.Nevertheless, the potential for the development of RBF worldwide as a pretreatment technology for drinking water is great and has been used successfully in the United States, Germany, and other countries for many years, decades, or even more than a century. If utilities develop effective monitoring networks and programs, have a good understanding of their hydrogeologic settings, including travel times and removal potential, and have an early warning system in place, RBF can be an effective tool to reduce the cost of alternative drinking-water treatment technologies, such as ultrafiltration, ozonation, and the use of activated carbon, for the reduction or removal of most organic compounds. As discussed in this section, a few organic compounds cannot be removed or can be partially removed by RBF. Several of these compounds, such as atrazine, alachlor ESA, EDTA, or selected pharmaceuticals, may be used as organic tracer compounds to evaluate contamination risks and the necessity of further protective actions. The organic tracer compounds also may be used to optimize the individual RBF process. If the occurrence of these compounds in drinking water is neither desired nor permitted by law, a multibarrier drinking-water treatment process may be necessary.