Assessment of Waters for Estrogenic Activity

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The goal of this research was to determine the occurrence of estrogenic activity in source waters, finished drinking waters, and industrial and municipal wastewater effluents. The research team planned to accomplish this goal by validating and optimizing the E-Screen assay, which would then be used to document the estrogenic activity in water samples. Additionally, caged fish studies and in lab exposure studies would be conducted on some of the same samples to assess estrogenic activity with an in vivo system. Using the E-Screen, the research team tested samples from over 70 drinking water facilities. A majority of the source waters (61%) had estrogen activities above the level of detection (0.029 ng/L). Drinking water treatment processes do remove activity, therefore, only 16% of finished waters had activities above the detection limit. Of the 27 wastewater treatment plant effluents tested, activity ranged from no activity to a sample with greater than 1, 700 ng/L of activity. Vitellogenin levels were significantly increased in male fathead minnows in only two of the waters tested, both wastewater treatment plant effluents.