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Tracking Polybrominated Diphenyl Ether Releases in a Wastewater Treatment Plant Effluent, Palo Alto, California

North, Karin D.·2004·Environmental Science & Technology

Abstract

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are commonly used flame-retardants that are now ubiquitous environmental contaminants. Wastewater treatment plants are one source of PBDEs to the environment through their discharge of treated effluent and land application of sewage sludge. Effluent and sludge were collected and analyzed for PBDEs at a wastewater treatment plant in California. The total concentration of PBDEs ranged from 61 to 1440 microg/kg dry wt in the sludge and from 4 to 29,000 pg/L in discharged effluent. The congeners with the highest abundance in sludge were BDE-47, BDE-99, and BDE-209, while in treated effluent BDE-47 and BDE-99 were the most abundant. BDE-47 and BDE-99 are major congeners of the penta-formulation, while BDE-209 composes the deca-formulation. The sum of the major congeners in the penta-formulation (BDE-47, 99, 100, 153, and 154) comprises 88% of the total PBDEs in the effluent, while BDE-209 is only 6%. Based on the loading analysis, the total PBDE concentrations loaded to the San Francisco Estuary through effluent discharge from this wastewater treatment plant is 2 lb/year (0.9 kg/year).

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Metadata

Authors
North, K. D.
Venue
Environmental Science & Technology
Published
2004-07-27
Volume
38
Issue
17
Pages
4484-4488
ISSN
  • 0013-936X (ISSN-L)
  • 1520-5851
OpenAlex
W2089466381
Cited by
205
References
0
FWCI
9.29
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Tracking Polybrominated Diphenyl Ether Releases in a Wastewater Treatment Plant Effluent, Palo Alto, California. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1021/es049627y
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North, K. D. (2004). Tracking Polybrominated Diphenyl Ether Releases in a Wastewater Treatment Plant Effluent, Palo Alto, California. Environmental Science & Technology. https://doi.org/10.1021/es049627y

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