A Database of Produced Water Constituents with Ranking of Human Health Risk
By
Sydney M. Joffre
B.S. Chemical Engineering, University of Colorado, 2018
B.S. Environmental Engineering, University of Colorado, 2019
A thesis submitted to the
Faculty of the Graduate School of the
University of Colorado in partial fulfillment
of the requirement for the degree
Master of Science
Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering
2020
Committee Members:
Cloelle Danforth
Karl Linden
James Rosenblum
Joseph Ryan
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Abstract:
Sydney M. Joffre (Master of Science, Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering)
A Database of Produced Water Constituents with Ranking of Human Health Risk
Thesis Directed by Professor Joseph N. Ryan
Produced water is the largest waste stream of upstream oil and gas production in terms of volume. This study aims to address the implications of produced water reuse applications and inadvertent releases. We created a database of compounds identified in produced water from onshore oil and gas operations in North America and developed a prioritization scheme for those chemicals based on potential risk to human health. Through a comprehensive literature review, we found 179 studies that met our inclusion criteria. In total, there were 1,337 chemicals with a Chemical Abstract Service (CAS) number and 41 general water quality parameters (e.g., total dissolved solids, alkalinity) in produced water reported by the studies. We used the database to create a list of unique chemicals that had data available through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s CompTox Dashboard and were in two or more individual samples at concentrations above the method detection limit. This resulted in a working list of 581 chemicals, comprised of 458 organic chemicals, 98 inorganic chemicals, and 25 radionuclides. Our prioritization scheme focused on the 390 organic chemicals in the working list that had at least one hazard metric available. Our prioritization scheme equally integrated aspects of exposure and hazard using the Toxicological Prioritization Index (ToxPi) to generate a ranking of compounds based on risk. The seven chemicals with the highest relative risk were organochlorine insecticides that are not expected to be associated with the oil and gas industry. The eighth-ranked compound, dodecahydro-1H-phenalene, was a hydrocarbon, which are expected to be identified in produced water. As research efforts into characterizing produced water expands, this database can provide a platform for potential uses such as generating a list of chemicals from a specific location that can then be prioritized using the scheme laid out in this study.
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Table of Contents LIST OF TABLES V LIST OF FIGURES VI 1 INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 1
1.1 PRODUCED WATER COMPOSITION AND SOURCES ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 3 1.1.1 Produced water composition …………………………………………………………………………………………………………... 4 1.1.2 Produced water sources ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 6 1.1.3 Produced water analytical challenges …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 9 1.2 POTENTIAL HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS FROM PRODUCED WATER REUSE AND SPILLS……………………………………. 10 1.3 THE ROLE OF RISK ASSESSMENT……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 14 1.4 OBJECTIVES………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 15 2 METHODS……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 16
2.1 PART I: DATABASE CREATION …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 16 2.1.1 Literature review …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 16 2.1.2 Database development …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 17 2.2 PART II: RISK PRIORITIZATION STRATEGY OF CHEMICALS IN PRODUCED WATER …………………………………………………………… 20 2.2.1 Produced water chemicals working list …………………………………………………………………………………………. 20 2.2.2 Associated data sources ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 23 2.2.3 Exposure pathway ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 25 2.2.4 Exposure domain ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 27 2.2.5 Hazard domain ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 34 2.2.6 Data integration and prioritization using the Toxicological Prioritization Index …………………………….. 35 2.2.7 Data availability ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 39 2.2.8 Sensitivity analysis ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 43 2.2.9 Reference compounds ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 44 3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 46
3.1 PART I: DATABASE……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 46 3.1.1 Identification of publications, samples, and chemicals in produced water through comprehensive literature review …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 46 3.2 PART II: PRIORITIZATION OF CHEMICALS IN PRODUCED WATER ………………………………………………………………………………. 47 3.2.1 Working list for prioritization scheme ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 47 3.2.2 Collection and analysis of toxicity data for chemicals in prioritization scheme ………………………………. 50 3.2.3 Data integration and prioritization using ToxPi …………………………………………………………………………….. 53 3.2.4 Sensitivity analysis ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... 71 3.2.5 Inorganic compounds without toxicity data ………………………………………………………………………………….. 87 3.2.6 Radionuclides ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 87 3.3 PART III: INTEGRATED FINDINGS …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 89 3.3.1 Future use of database …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 89 3.3.2 Compound rank summary …………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 90 3.3.3 Organic compounds with toxicity data ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 92 3.3.4 Prioritization scheme sensitivity ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 93 3.3.5 Comparison to Danforth et al. (2020) …………………………………………………………………………………………… 94 4 CONCLUSION …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 98 5 WORKS CITED ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 99 6 APPENDIX ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 115
6.1 DATABASE CREATION …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 115
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6.1.1 Literature review search logic ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 115 6.1.2 Abbreviations used in database ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 116 6.2 EXPOSURE DOMAIN: IONIZED COMPOUNDS …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 117 6.3 DATABASE RESULTS ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 120 6.4 TOXPI RESULTS …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 123 6.4.1 Analysis ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 123 6.4.2 Organic compounds without toxicity data …………………………………………………………………………………… 163 6.4.3 Inorganic compounds with toxicity data ……………………………………………………………………………………… 167 6.5 SENSITIVITY ANALYSES ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 169 6.5.1 Missing data ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 169 6.5.2 Domain weights ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 180 6.6 INORGANIC COMPOUNDS WITHOUT TOXICITY DATA …………………………………………………………………………………………… 192 6.7 RADIONUCLIDES ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 194 6.8 FUTURE USE OF DATABASE …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 195 6.9 COMPARISON TO DANFORTH ET AL. (2020) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 196
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List of Tables Table 1. Isomer mixtures on the working list ...... 22 Table 2. Mobility calculation parameters ...... 32 Table 3. Search logic for identifying acids and bases ...... 33 Table 4. Scaling equations for the exposure domain metrics...... 37 Table 5. Cases used in the missing data treatment sensitivity analysis ...... 43 Table 6. Cases used to evaluate the sensitivity of the hazard and exposure domains...... 44 Table 7. Experimental values of exposure metrics for the exposure domain reference compounds ...... 45 Table 8. Experimental toxicity values for the five hazard domain reference compounds ...... 45 Table 9. Organic compounds not included on the working list ...... 48 Table 10. Availability of experimental and predicted toxicity values for the 556 organic and inorganic compounds on the working list ...... 51 Table 11. Availability of experimental and predicted toxicity values for the 458 organic compounds on the working list ...... 52 Table 12. Availability of experimental toxicity values for the 98 inorganic compounds on the working list ...... 52 Table 13. Rank and ToxPi scores for the 40 organic compounds with toxicity data that had the highest relative risk...... 56 Table 14. Exposure domain reference compounds with their overall rank, overall ToxPi score, ToxPi score of the exposure metrics, and the time it takes each compound to travel a setback distance of 94 meters ...... 63 Table 15. Hazard domain reference compounds with their overall rank and overall ToxPi score...... 64 Table 16. The seven organic compounds without toxicity data from the working list with the highest relative risk ...... 66 Table 17. ToxPi scores and ranking for the 36 inorganic compounds with data ……………………………………………….. 69 Table 18. Summary of the number of compounds that shifted rank compared to the original analysis for each case in the missing data sensitivity analysis ...... 72 Table 19. Overall and relative ranks of the exposure domain reference compounds for the original analysis and the three cases used in the missing data sensitivity analysis ...... 77 Table 20. Number of compounds that shifted rank compared to the original analysis for each of the four domain weight cases ...... 78 Table 21. Overall and relative ranks of the exposure domain reference compounds for the original analysis and the four cases used in the domain sensitivity analysis ...... 85 Table 22. Overall and relative ranks of the hazard domain reference compounds for the original analysis and the four cases used in the domain sensitivity analysis ...... 86 Table 23. Six compounds with the highest maximum reported concentration and number of samples the compound was identified in for the inorganic compounds without toxicity data...... 87 Table 24. Maximum activity concentration and number of entries in the database for each radionuclide on the working list ...... 88 Table 25. The 15 compounds with the highest rank from each of the five groups analyzed ...... 91 Table 26. Rank comparison for the top 40 organic compounds on the working list with at least one toxicity value that were also ranked in the top 40 in the prioritization by Danforth et al...... 96
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List of Figures Figure 1. Number of studies published between 1975 and 2019 that present primary chemical data of flowback and produced water from onshore oil and gas wells in North America ...... 3 Figure 2. Column headers for each spreadsheet in the database ...... 18 Figure 3. Exposure pathway used for the prioritization scheme ...... 26 Figure 4. Experimental toxicity data source hierarchy ...... 35 Figure 5. ToxPi definitions and notations...... 38 Figure 6. Flow chart of the groups within the working list ...... 40 Figure 7. ToxPi profile for the analysis of the organic compounds without toxicity data ...... 41 Figure 8. ToxPi profile used in the analysis of the inorganic compounds with toxicity data ...... 42 Figure 9. Flow diagram of the requirements for a compound to be placed on the working list once identified in a sample ...... 49 Figure 10. Flow diagram of the different groups of compounds in the working list ...... 50 Figure 11. ToxPi profile for the analysis ...... 54 Figure 12. Overall ToxPi score versus rank for the 390 organic compounds with toxicity data ...... 55 Figure 13. ToxPi profile for aldrin ...... 58 Figure 14. ToxPi profile for dodecahydro-1H-phenalene ...... 59 Figure 15. ToxPi profile for 1,3-benzenedicarboxylic acid ...... 61 Figure 16. Exposure domain reference compound ToxPi profiles from the analysis ...... 63 Figure 17. Hazard domain reference compound ToxPi profiles from the analysis ...... 65 Figure 18. ToxPi profiles for the organic compounds without toxicity data that have the highest and lowest relative risk ...... 67 Figure 19. ToxPi score versus rank for the original analysis and three missing data treatment cases ...... 73 Figure 20. Heat map of the results from the three different cases evaluating the sensitivity of missing data treatment ...... 74 Figure 21. ToxPi score versus compound rank for the original analysis and the exposure domain reference compounds for each missing data treatment case ...... 75 Figure 22. ToxPi score versus compound rank for the original analysis and the hazard domain reference compounds for each missing data treatment case ...... 76 Figure 23. ToxPi score versus compound rank for the sensitivity analysis evaluating the importance of the weights of the hazard and exposure domains...... 80 Figure 24. Heat map of the results from the four different cases evaluating the sensitivity of domain weights to the original analysis ...... 81 Figure 25. ToxPi score versus compound rank for the original analysis and the exposure domain reference compounds for each domain weight case analyzed ...... 82 Figure 26. ToxPi score versus compound rank for the original analysis and the hazard domain reference compounds ...... 83 Figure 27. ToxPi profiles for the exposure domain reference compounds from the exposure-only case ...... 84 Figure 28. ToxPi profiles for hazard domain reference compounds from the hazard-only case ...... 84
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1 Introduction
With oil and gas production comes the challenge of managing its waste streams. In terms of volume, produced water is the largest waste stream of upstream oil and gas production (Veil, 2020). Produced water is comprised of the water that was trapped in the formation and any additives used to develop a well, which comes back to the surface after a well begins generating oil and gas. From 2007 to 2017, there was a 94.6% growth in US oil production and a 43.6% growth in gas production, resulting in a 16.2% growth of the total volume of produced water generated (Veil, 2020). The quality of produced water is generally poor as it is usually highly saline and can contain hazardous constituents, including organic compounds, metals, and naturally-occurring radioactive materials (Hoelzer et al., 2016).
Produced water is primarily disposed of by deep well injection because, where available, it is the least expensive option for managing this waste stream (Veil, 2020). However, there has been an increasing desire to avoid deep well injection and instead use produced water as an alternative water source (GWPC, 2019b). Some potential reuse options have been considered, such as providing water for livestock and agriculture, industrial processes, and recharging groundwater (Hagström et al., 2016). Given the hazardous nature of produced water, treatment would be required before it can be used for any of these applications (Jang et al.,
2017). The level of treatment required depends on the risk to human health or the environment associated with the intended application of the produced water. The optimal treatment technology for produced water is dependent on the contaminants of concern being targeted, with some waters requiring multiple treatments to achieve the desired level of removal (Nasiri
1 et al., 2017). However, there is currently neither adequate nor comprehensive characterization of produced water compositions from either conventional or unconventional wells (Oetjen et al., 2017). Reuse outside of the oilfield may return water to the hydrologic cycle, but the complex and variable composition of produced water may make treatment expensive and difficult. Additionally, produced water from unintentional discharges entering the environment presents a risk to surface and groundwater quality. Inadvertent releases of produced water can result from spills when the produced water is being transported, or if well integrity fails, allowing for seepage of produced water from the well into surrounding soil and water (Pichtel,
2016; Gandhi et al., 2018).
A recent uptick in studies analyzing produced water has indicated a need for an easily accessible database to aggregate the available data (Figure 1). This database could then be used to aid in evaluating the risks of produced water release to the environment. Moving forward, a detailed chemical characterization aimed at identifying constituents and their potential risks will be a critical step in evaluating the suitability of produced water for reuse scenarios.
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Figure 1. Number of studies published between 1975 and 2019 that present primary chemical data of flowback and produced water from onshore oil and gas wells in North America. Studies from 1975 to 1999 are in five-year groupings.
1.1 Produced water composition and sources
Oil and gas wastewater is generally described as either flowback or produced water.
Liden et al. (2017) provides succinct definitions of these two wastewater types, which are summarized in the following sentences. During development, the flowback period occurs when the fluids injected into the well for hydraulic fracturing come back to the surface before oil and gas production begins. Typically, when the water returning to the surface is more characteristic of the formation water rather than the injection fluids, the wastewater is referred to as produced water. For the purposes of this manuscript, produced water will refer to any wastewater generated during the life of a well. A total of 3.88 billion liters of produced water were generated in 2017 in the United States (Veil, 2020). Of these, 3.80 billion liters were generated from onshore oil and gas wells.
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1.1.1 Produced water composition
The composition of produced water depends on multiple factors, including the formation being developed, the petroleum hydrocarbon targeted, chemicals used in production, and the length of time the well has been in production (Fakhru’l-Razi et al., 2009).
Produced water can have characteristics both from the water injected into the well and the targeted geologic formation (Engle et al., 2014; Oetjen et al., 2017). General classes of inorganic compounds found in produced water include total dissolved solids (TDS), naturally-occurring radioactive materials (NORM), and trace metals; classes of organic compounds include acids, alcohols, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), and polymers (Barbot et al., 2013; Ferrer &
Thurman, 2015a).
1.1.1.1 Inorganic compounds in produced water
Total dissolved solids, trace elements, and NORM are three groups of inorganic compounds that can increase the risks associated with produced water (Neff et al., 2011). A concern of the high TDS generally found in produced water is that it renders the water unsuitable for agriculture reuse. Total dissolved solids concentrations in produced water can vary from 500 to 400,000 mg/L (Al-Ghouti et al., 2019). Elements known to be in produced water that contribute to TDS include calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, sulfate, and chloride (Fakhru’l-Razi et al., 2009).
Trace elements commonly found in produced water include: aluminum, antimony, arsenic, barium, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, lead, mercury, molybdenum, nickel, rubidium, uranium, vanadium, and zinc (Jubb et al., 2020). Of these trace elements, cadmium, arsenic, beryllium, lead, and chromium are classified as carcinogens (U.S. EPA, 2014).
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Mercury is known to have detrimental effects on the nervous system; molybdenum is harmful to the urinary system; and zinc negatively impacts the immune and hematologic systems (U.S.
EPA, 2014).
Two of the most common radionuclides identified in produced water are radium-226 and radium-228 (Alley et al., 2011). Other NORMs in produced water include decay products of uranium and thorium, such as lead-210, bismuth-214, and radon-222. Potassium-40 and strontium-90 have also been identified in produced water (Ferrer & Thurman, 2015a).
1.1.1.2 Organic compounds in produced water
A variety of organic compounds have been identified in produced water. Acetic acid, formic acid, and propionic acid are organic acids commonly found in produced water
(Fakhru’l-Razi et al., 2009). Of these, acetic acid and formic acid are used as additives in hydraulic fracturing fluid to control pH (Elsner & Hoelzer, 2016). Butanol, ethanol, and phenol are alcohols known to be in produced water that have also been identified as additives in hydraulic fracturing fluids. Ethanol, isopropanol, and methanol are commonly used as solvents in hydraulic fracturing fluid to maintain a homogenous solution (Elsner & Hoelzer, 2016).
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, compounds with at least two aromatic rings fused together, usually identified in produced water include naphthalene, phenanthrene, and fluoranthene
(Chowdhury et al., 2009). This compound class is toxic and persistent, and thus hazardous to human health and the environment (Neff et al., 2011). Four frequently-occurring petroleum hydrocarbons in produced water are benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX)
(Guerra et al., 2011). Benzene and ethylbenzene are hazardous because they are carcinogenic, while toluene and xylene pose adverse health risks (U.S. EPA, 2014). Two important types of
5 polymers in produced water are polyethylene glycols (PEG) and polypropylene glycols (PPG).
These compounds are regularly used as surfactants and non-emulsifiers in hydraulic fracturing fluid to increase efficiency by decreasing the fluid’s friction (Elsner & Hoelzer, 2016). Despite being used in fracturing fluid, PEGs and PPGs have been found in produced water 400 days after well production began (Rogers et al., 2019).
1.1.2 Produced water sources
Both the drilling technique and desired petroleum hydrocarbon affect the volume of produced water created over the life of a well. An average vertical well creates close to 13 units of produced water for every one unit of oil, while horizontal wells generate an average of around three units of produced water per unit of oil (Scanlon et al., 2017). Up to 50% of the total produced water volume from a horizontal well comes to the surface during the first six months of production, with almost all horizontal wells having generated more than 50% of their total produced water volume by the end of the first year (Kondash et al., 2017). Kondash et al.
(2018) found that in 2015, the average gas-producing well in the Permian Basin generated 60 million liters of produced water compared to 29 million liters from the average oil-producing well in the same basin. Wells in the Eagle Ford formation also generated more produced water from gas-producing wells (20.7 million liters) than from oil-producing wells (16.9 million liters) in 2015 (Kondash et al., 2018).
1.1.2.1 Shale gas revolution
The oil and gas in formations targeted by unconventional techniques are difficult to extract because they are trapped in tight formations, typically shales (Torres et al., 2016).
Unconventional extraction is usually done by horizontal drilling and high-volume hydraulic
6 fracturing (Ratner & Tiemann, 2015). During horizontal drilling, a vertical well is drilled to a specific depth and is then extended laterally before hydraulic fracturing occurs. Hydraulic fracturing is a technique that creates fractures in these rocks by injecting fluid, which has varying compositions of approximately 90% water, 9% sand, and 1% chemical additives, into the target formation at high pressures (GWPC & ALL Consulting, 2009). Sand, a proppant, is added to the injected fluid to ensure that the fractures created in the drilling process remain
“propped open” during extraction (Barati & Liang, 2014). Operators use chemical additives to increase the efficiency of different aspects of the drilling process; including reducing friction between the pipe and injected fluid, sustaining a specific fluid viscosity, and avoiding pipe corrosion (Elsner & Hoelzer, 2016). In 2016, the average high-volume, horizontal well required approximately 30.5 million liters of injected fluid, which would include 305,000 liters of chemical additives per well (Kondash et al., 2018).
The combined technologies of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing led to an uptick in production, which has been hailed as the Shale Gas Revolution in the U.S. (Wang et al.,
2014). During the Shale Gas Revolution, which spanned from approximately 2000 to 2010, U.S. shale gas production drastically increased from less than 1% to more than 20% of the total gas production in the U.S. (Stevens, 2012). This, in turn, raised concerns around the amounts and types of chemicals being used in the process. In 2011, the FracFocus database was created to document chemical additives in the fracturing fluid and to provide transparency in hydraulic fracturing during oil and gas operations; FracFocus is still in use (GWPC & IOGCC, 2011). Some states require oil and gas operators to report information on the ingredients in their fracturing fluids to FracFocus, but all operators can disclose this information on a voluntary basis
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(Konschnik & Dayalu, 2016). A typical disclosure to FracFocus includes the trade name of the additive, the purpose of the additive, the chemicals that compose the additive identified by name and Chemical Abstract Service (CAS) number, the maximum chemical concentration in the additive by mass percent, and the maximum chemical concentration in the hydraulic fracturing fluid by mass percent (Nickolaus, 2013).
Since the creation of the FracFocus database, researchers have been able to evaluate the different aspects of the hydraulic fracturing process, such as the quantity and composition of fracturing fluid. Arthur et al. (2014) used the FracFocus database to query the number of disclosures to FracFocus by state, shale play, and well operators, the mixture of additives used in fracturing fluids for different formations, and the percentage of entries that were designated as proprietary. These queries demonstrated that FracFocus could be used to better understand the chemicals used in fracturing fluid and identify the extent of missing hazard and physicochemical properties. Arthur et al. (2014) concluded that FracFocus can provide a wide array of valuable information, but that the database should be combined with related information, such as permit data from state documents, to provide a more complete picture of hydraulic fracturing. Rogers et al. (2015) evaluated the risk of organic compounds in the
FracFocus database based on their mobility, persistence, and frequency of use. This analysis showed the value of having a database of chemicals used in the hydraulic fracturing process. In the study, FracFocus was used to both identify compounds and determine how frequently a compound was reported on a national level.
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1.1.3 Produced water analytical challenges
The two goals of analyzing produced water are to identify constituents and determine their concentration in the wastewater. A literature review by Danforth et al. (2020) found 1,198 different compounds that have been reported as detected in produced water from studies using analytical methods classified as either “standard” or “research.” Standard methods have gone through quality assurance and quality control tests and have been validated for use in certified labs (U.S. EPA, 2015b). Research methods provide alternative analytical methods that have not been approved by the EPA for regulatory purposes. Standard methods are required for use in a regulatory context because they offer validated procedures, and thus consistent results, across different labs. Currently, approximately 75% of chemicals known to be present in produced water do not have standard analytical techniques (Danforth et al., 2020). Research methods for some compounds without standard methods have been developed and are being used to characterize produced water (Ferrer & Thurman, 2015b; Nell & Helbling, 2019; Cantlay et al., 2020). Given the dearth of standard methods and the under-characterized nature of produced water, determining adequate regulations and treatment for the reuse of this water or potential risks of a spill is difficult (Oetjen et al., 2017).
Another analytical challenge is caused by matrix interference due to the high salinity content of the produced water. Many standard methods are developed to analyze groundwater or surface water, which are less saline than produced water and have less complex matrices
(U.S. EPA, 2013). Matrix interferences can result in having to dilute the sample and thus increasing the method detection limit, measuring concentrations inaccurately and imprecisely, or amplifying the recovery loss in proportion to the compound’s concentration (Oetjen et al.,
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2017). The occurrence of any of these matrix interference effects would decrease the reliability of the measurements in terms of both quantification and detection (U.S. EPA, 2018a).
1.2 Potential health and environmental impacts from produced water reuse and spills
Under the Clean Water Act (CWA), a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
(NPDES) permit is required for facilities that discharge pollutants to surface waters (33 U.S.C.
§1311, 1972). While the limits on types and quantities of pollutants in these permits can vary, the EPA has created effluent limitations guidelines (ELGs) that set the minimum required treatment level for produced water to be discharged into surface waters (GWPC, 2019a). In the western United States (west of the 98th meridian), produced water intended for agricultural and wildlife use can be released to surface waters if it meets the ELG of 35 mg/L for oil and grease and is “of good enough quality” for its intended purpose, and it must be shown that the water is being used for that purpose (i.e. agriculture or wildlife propagation) (40 CFR §435.53, 1995).
Permit writers can add more standards to the permit based on current technology and guidelines, but they are not required to do so (GWPC, 2019a). McLaughlin et al. (2020) analyzed produced water that was being discharged into surface waters under NPDES permits in
Wyoming. More than 50 of the organic compounds identified in the discharge did not have effluent limitations guidelines, while all inorganic compounds identified had guidelines and were found at concentrations below the permit requirements (McLaughlin et al., 2020b). The study also investigated the potential health impacts by comparing the maximum concentration of a compound to five human, aquatic, and livestock health thresholds. There were eight compounds (arsenic, benzene, cadmium, selenium, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes, and zinc) that had values for all five thresholds (McLaughlin et al., 2020b). It should be noted that
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McLaughlin et al. (2020b) evaluated toxicity of individual constituents, not aggregate toxicity.
Analyzing the potential toxicity of the large mixture of compounds in produced water is difficult, and the inability to fully characterize this water adds complexity to the process.
However, a study by Kassotis et al. (2015) analyzed a mixture of 24 hydraulic fracturing fluid additives identified both synergistic and antagonistic effects.
A second study by McLaughlin et al. (2020b) evaluated the mutagenicity of the same produced water effluent, using a whole effluent assessment method (McLaughlin et al., 2020a).
They found that the rate of mutations was comparable to the concentration trends of the carcinogens, such as benzene and radium, in that the mutation rate decreased as distance away from the discharge site increased. The results from both studies indicate that the NPDES permits should include a more comprehensive list of compounds and have stricter ELGs to protect human, aquatic, livestock, and general environmental health (McLaughlin et al., 2020a;
McLaughlin, et al., 2020b).
Indirect discharges of produced water treated at Centralized Waste Treatment (CWT) facilities are regulated under the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) in 40 CFR Part 437 (40 CFR
§437, 2003). An EPA report on centralized waste treatment (CWT) facilities identified 11 facilities that received oil and gas wastewaters in 2017 that were regulated with NPDES permits
(U.S. EPA, 2018b). The report found that the few facilities using a multi-step treatment process removed more pollutants than those using a single treatment technology. In general, most of the CWT facility discharges had high concentrations of TDS, metals, halides, and NORM (U.S.
EPA, 2018b).
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Produced water can potentially be used for irrigation; however, the regulatory authority for this purpose is set by individual states because land applications are not covered under the
Clean Water Act (GWPC, 2019a). One of the main concerns related to produced water quality for crop irrigation is its high salinity content, which can cause soil salinization and sodification
(Echchelh et al., 2018). This processes lead to the accumulation of salts, including sodium, calcium, and chloride, in the soil; this accumulation decreases the amount of water available to crops and disturbs or destroys the soil structure (USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service,
1998). Another concern with using produced water for irrigation is the effects of organic compounds on crop growth and soil health. A study on the growth of rapeseed and switchgrass suggested that a concentration of organic matter lower than 5 mg/L and a total dissolved solids concentration of less than 3,500 mg/L are needed for a plant to adequately grow and remain healthy (Pica et al., 2017). Pica et al. (2017) concluded that organic compounds should be considered as detrimental to plant growth as salinity when using produced water for irrigation.
A similar conclusion was reached by Sedlacko et al. (2019), who evaluated the changes in physiological and morphological of spring wheat being irrigated by diluted produced water, water that was 50% sodium chloride (50% salinity), and tap water. The study found that the morphological changes in the crops watered with produced water diluted at 10% and saline water, which had five-times more TDS, followed similar trends (Sedlacko et al., 2019). These results indicate that factors other than salinity need to be considered when assessing potential agricultural reuse applications. Miller et al. (2019) investigated the effects of using produced water for irrigation on crop immune response. They identified boron and petroleum
12 hydrocarbons, along with salinity, as produced water constituents that can negatively impact crops by inhibiting their ability to combat disease.
Inadvertent releases of produced water, such as leaking from holding tanks or spills during transport, can pose risks to nearby groundwater (Gross et al., 2013). Information on spills nationwide is limited because the regulations for reporting these incidences are set by individual states (Allison & Mandler, 2018). However, a comprehensive, nine-year study of produced water spills in four states with a large number of oil and gas operations provides insight on trends associated with inadvertent releases. Between 2005 and 2014, approximately
50% of the 6,648 spills related to unconventional oil and gas wells in Colorado, New Mexico,
North Dakota, and Pennsylvania were connected to produced water storage and transferring fluids using flowlines (Patterson et al., 2017). Patterson et al. (2017) also found that 75 – 94% of spills in the four states were during the first three years of the drilling and extraction processes.
A companion paper by Maloney et al. (2017) identified a continuing upward trend in spill rates starting around the late 2000s in three of the four states, with Pennsylvania’s spill rate peaking in 2009 for unknown reasons. Armstrong et al. (2017) found that while the number of accidental spills per well increased from 2011 to 2014, the number of spills that impacted groundwater decreased from 54% to 27% in the Greater Wattenberg Area of the
Denver-Julesburg Basin in Colorado. This could be the result of an increased number of spills from individual wells, but a decrease in the number of spills per total volume of fluids in the basin. In Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania, only 7% of spills were closer than 30.5 meters to surface water, which is the setback regulation; 13.3% of spills were closer than 61 meters and 20.4% were within 91.4 meters (Maloney et al., 2017). A spill can be
13 upwards of 100,000 liters, so thousands of liters of produced water can be released from a single spill event. Produced water from spills can contain high concentrations of many known constituents of concern, such as BTEX, radium, TDS, and metals.
1.3 The role of risk assessment
Before contaminants of concern are discharged or released to the environment, research must be conducted on the potential effects of hazardous chemicals on human and environmental receptors (Chittick & Srebotnjak, 2017). Such research can also provide a better understanding of the potential outcomes of produced water spills. Risk assessments are performed to understand probable impacts on human health or the environment from hazardous compounds in different environmental media (ITRC, 2015). Generally, a risk assessment is done in four phases: (1) identification of the hazards, (2) determination of dose- response relationships, (3) discovery of exposure routes, and (4) combination of these aspects to illustrate the risk (NRC, 2009). Once the chemicals and associated toxicological hazards have been identified, compound-specific toxicity data derived from dose-response curves can be gathered to indicate the dose that leads to adverse effects. The exposure route is important because it determines the way a receptor would encounter different toxic compounds.
For a full risk assessment to be conducted, detailed site-specific information is required.
However, adaptations can be made to the process to allow researchers to better focus on the broader risks associated with different activities. Rogers et al. (2015) did this by designing a framework for the prioritization of exposure-based risk of chemicals found in hydraulic fracturing fluids.
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1.4 Objectives
This study builds on the work done by Danforth et al. (2020), which identified and prioritized compounds in produced water based on potential toxicological hazard to human and environmental health. Our objectives here were to first create a database of produced water constituents from conventional and unconventional onshore oil and gas operations in North
America, and second, to develop a prioritization scheme for those chemicals based on potential risk to human health. This database will provide researchers with a single source of data for compounds in produced water from multiple studies. This will address the need for better information about the types of chemicals found in produced water, its potential for reuse, and impacts from spills. For the chemicals that have been identified in produced water and were used in the prioritization scheme, the database includes available physical and chemical property data.
We used the database to generate a ranking of chemicals in produced water to identify which chemicals in produced water should be prioritized when evaluating the risks associated with reuse applications or inadvertent releases. This prioritization scheme was based on a risk assessment procedure; as such, both chemical hazard and potential for exposure were considered. For this evaluation, we defined the exposure pathway to be through groundwater as this encompassed produced water released inadvertently or produced water being reused for agriculture and land applications.
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2 Methods
2.1 Part I: Database creation
To create a database of produced water constituents for the purpose of aggregating available information in a single location, we identified and reviewed the available literature on produced water characterization, extracted chemical data and associated sample information from the publications, and built the database using Jupyter Notebook (Perez & Granger, 2015).
2.1.1 Literature review
We built upon previous work conducted by Danforth et al. (2020) by using the studies identified in their literature review and by duplicating their search strategy to update the initial review. The Danforth et al. (2020) review surveyed literature published on or before March 8,
2018. Data collected in their review was used to generate a method for the prioritization of compounds in produced water. Like Danforth et al. (2020), we used the Web of Science
(Clarivate Analytics, 1997) and PubMed (National Library of Medicine, 1996) databases to identify potential studies for inclusion. Almost every journal in the Web of Science and PubMed databases are peer-reviewed, but results from non-peer-reviewed sources, such as reports or conferences, can be found on Web of Science. The search logic and inclusion criteria are available in Appendix Table 1. For a paper to be included, the study needed to provide primary data on chemicals of flowback or produced water from an onshore oil and gas operation in
North America. If a paper was a review of previously published data, the original studies were identified and evaluated to determine if they should be included in the database.
Our March 9, 2018 to November 12, 2019 review used the Health Assessment
Workplace Collaborative (HAWC) program (Shapiro et al., 2013) to sort the articles highlighted 16 by Web of Science and PubMed into inclusion and exclusion categories. Danforth et al. (2020) used a program called DistillerSR (Evidence Partners, Ottawa, Canada), which is similar to
HAWC, to sort their articles. Studies that met the inclusion criteria by analyzing flowback and produced water generated from onshore oil and gas operations in North America were sorted in HAWC based on the type of well (conventional, unconventional, coalbed methane, or unidentified) to organize the studies before data extraction occurred. During the literature review, studies were excluded from the database if no specific chemicals were identified, if the well was not in North America or onshore, if the study was a review of previously published literature, or if the study did not analyze flowback and produced water.
2.1.2 Database development
Produced water data were extracted from the studies that met the inclusion criteria and sorted into three related spreadsheets. The three spreadsheets were (1) publication information, (2) sample information, and (3) chemical information. Figure 2 shows the different columns in each spreadsheet and how the publications, samples, and chemical data collected from identified studies are related to each other using their respective ID numbers.
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Figure 2. Column headers for each spreadsheet in the database. The arrows show the connection between the different spreadsheets. Headers with a ‘?’ indicates that the inputs were either ‘yes’ or ‘no’. In the publication information spreadsheet, DOI is the abbreviation for ‘digital object identifier’. Both the publication information and chemical information spreadsheets reference a Chemical Abstract Services (CAS) number. ‘Dashboard’ in the chemical information spreadsheet indicates if the chemical is included in the EPA CompTox Dashboard (Williams et al., 2017).
Each publication, sample, and individual chemical reported has its own unique identification number (ID). The ID numbers were randomly assigned in ascending order. Every sample can be traced back to the publication it was reported in, and every chemical can be traced back to its sample based on the respective IDs. Column headers that end with a ‘?’ indicate that the database entry was restricted to a ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
CompTox was developed by the EPA to provide a wide array of chemical data in a single location (Williams et al., 2017). As of July 22, 2020, it contained physical and chemical data from multiple sources for over 882,000 compounds (Williams et al., 2017). Compounds can be searched by different identifiers, such as their systematic name, synonym, or CAS number.
Examples of these data include intrinsic properties, structural identifiers, properties, environmental fate and transport, hazard, and related substances. Where available, both predicted and experimental values are provided. We used CompTox over other data sources
18 because it has a feature that allowed us to do a batch download that included all physicochemical data needed for both the database and the risk-based prioritization.
In the publication information sheet, ‘Method Type’ designates whether the analytical methods used were standard or research methods, with any research methods used were listed under ‘Research Methods’. In the sample information sheet, ‘Hydrocarbon Type’ refers to the petroleum product being extracted from the well (oil, natural gas, shale oil, shale gas, or coalbed methane) and ‘Extraction Location’ identifies where the produced water sample was taken from (i.e., wellhead, oil and gas separator, impoundment tank).
Inorganic compounds were categorized as those not having a carbon-hydrogen bond using the simplified molecular-input line-entry system (SMILES) (Weininger, 1987) notation entered in the chemical information spreadsheet in the database. The SMILES for each chemical was identified using CompTox. For consistency, the preferred chemical name from CompTox for each CAS number was used. If a compound was included in a chemical characterization analysis but not detected at the method detection limit, the value “99998” was entered as the concentration with units of “BDL” (below the detection limit). For compounds detected but not quantified (NQ), the concentration was set to “99999” with units of “NQ”. Chemicals that were tested for but not found were included in the database because we wanted to be able to identify chemicals that researchers have searched for in produced water samples. General water quality parameters, including total dissolved solids (TDS) and alkalinity, provide useful information on produced water quality characteristics, but do not have CAS numbers. Instead of CAS numbers, these water quality parameters were labeled with an easily identifiable abbreviation or acronym in our database (Appendix Table 2).
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2.2 Part II: Risk prioritization strategy of chemicals in produced water
The finalized database was used to identify chemicals in produced water that could be prioritized when evaluating the implications of produced water reuse or spills. Recognizing that a minimum availability of data is needed to create a prioritization scheme, a subset, or
“working” list, of the chemicals compiled in the database were selected to determine which compounds had the highest likelihood of posing risk to a human receptor via a groundwater- based exposure pathway. To prioritize the chemicals, we considered both toxicological hazard and environmental fate and transport parameters affecting exposure of receptors. We created two domains to encompass these aspects: hazard and exposure. Here, the term “domain” is used to describe the grouping of individual metrics, or parameters, used in our prioritization.
2.2.1 Produced water chemicals working list
To create a working list of chemicals that could be used to generate a risk-based ranking, we used the finalized chemical database to create a list of unique chemicals in produced water. A unique chemical defined here is a chemical with a CAS number available on
CompTox that was identified in at least two individual produced water samples in the database above the detection limit or in a non-quantitative analysis. A compound needed to be reported in at least two samples to highlight compounds that are more likely to be in produced water and to narrow the scope of the working list. General water quality parameters were not considered unique because they do not have CAS numbers and thus do not have data available on CompTox.
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2.2.1.1 Homologous and undefined mixtures
In some instances, a mixture of isomers was reported as being identified in a sample.
For example, instead of individually identifying o-xylene, m-xylene, and p-xylene, the measurement or detection of the undefined isomer mixture “xylenes” or “m,p-xylene” was reported. This was problematic for two reasons when compiling the working list. First, the toxicity reported for an isomer mixture is an average of the toxicity of the isomers composing the mixture; thus, the toxicity of the mixture may be higher or lower than that of some of the individual isomers. Second, inclusion of isomer mixtures in the working list would have led to the double-counting of the isomer’s individual compounds if they were already in the working list while not accounting for the individual compounds not in the working list. When just the mixture is reported, it is impossible to determine which individual compounds were present in the sample or at what concentration. To remedy these discrepancies, we determined that mixtures on the working list would be replaced with the individual compounds that typically make up the isomer mixture. The isomer mixtures and their concentrations were not changed in the database and concentration data was not included for any compound in the working list.
The compounds that composed each isomer mixture were found using the “related compounds” option on CompTox. A list of the isomer mixtures and the compounds used to replace them can be found in Table 1.
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Table 1. Isomer mixtures on the working list and the individual compounds that make them up. In the working list, the mixtures were removed and replaced with the compounds that compose them. Bolded compounds were already on the working list.
Isomer Mixture Individual Compounds o-xylene xylenes m-xylene p-xylene m-xylene m,p-xylene p-xylene 1,2,3-trimethylbenzene trimethylbenzene 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene 2-methylquinoline 3-methylquinoline 4-methylquinoline methylquinoline 5-methylquinoline 6-methylquinoline 7-methylquinoline 8-methylquinoline o-cresol cresol m-cresol p-cresol m-cresol m,p-cresol o-cresol 2-methylbiphenyl methylbiphenyl 3-methylbiphenyl 4-methylbiphenyl 1-methylnaphthalene methylnaphthalene 2-methylnaphthalene 2,3-dimethylphenol 2,4-dimethylphenol 2,5-dimethylphenol dimethylphenol 2,6-dimethylphenol 3,4-dimethylphenol 3,5-dimethylphenol 1,2-dimethylnaphthalene 1,3-dimethylnaphthalene 1,4-dimethylnaphthalene 1,5-dimethylnaphthalene 1,6-dimethylnaphthalene dimethylnaphthalene 1,7-dimethylnaphthalene 1,8-dimethylnaphthalene 2,3-dimethylnaphthalene 2,6-dimethylnaphthalene 2,7-dimethylnaphthalene
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2.2.1.2 Inorganic compounds
Inorganic compounds in the working list were identified and separated from the organic compounds for the risk ranking. A different approach for prioritization was employed for inorganic compounds because of the limited physicochemical properties available for them.
Many quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) models, which use compound structure to predict physicochemical properties, are designed for either inorganic compounds or organic compounds, but not both (Fourches et al., 2010). This includes the OPEn structure-activity Relationship Application (OPERA) (Mansouri et al., 2018), which was the source of all predictions for the values of the metrics in the exposure domain. It is also difficult to apply general modeling to inorganic compounds because of complexation reactions, which are sensitive to media-specific factors that can vary from site to site (i.e., organic matter content of the soil, salinity content of water) (Kirchhübel & Fantke, 2019).
2.2.2 Associated data sources
To prepare for the risk prioritization, physicochemical data and toxicity values for the compounds on the working list were added to the database. OPERA was used to model the physicochemical data. Toxicity data were sourced from the ToxVal database (Martin & Judson,
2010) and the Conditional Toxicity Values (CTV) Predictor tool (Wignall et al., 2018).
2.2.2.1 Physicochemical data
All physicochemical data in the database were modeled in OPERA and were downloaded from CompTox. OPERA uses a QSAR model based on the PHYSPROP database (U.S. EPA NCCT,
2017) to predict different physical and chemical properties associated with environmental fate
23 and transport (Mansouri et al., 2018). The PHYSPROP database contains experimental and predicted data for over 40,000 chemicals (U.S. EPA NCCT, 2017), but these values cannot be downloaded using the batch search feature in CompTox. All values predicted by a QSAR model have a corresponding applicability domain, which indicates the uncertainty in the value based on the similarity of the compound structure compared to the compound structures used in the model (Roy et al., 2015). The higher the applicability domain, the less reliable the predicted value is.
2.2.2.2 Toxicity data
Toxicity values for all compounds in the working list, except radionuclides, were either downloaded from the ToxVal database on February 18, 2020 or modeled using the CTV
Predictor tool.
The ToxVal database contains an overview of data from in vivo studies that can be used for mammalian and ecotoxicological toxicity studies (Martin & Judson, 2010). There is no curation process in place, but data in ToxVal from regulatory agencies, such as the Integrated
Risk Information System (IRIS) and the Provisional Peer-Reviewed Toxicity Values (PPRTV) program, are reliable because those experiments followed standardized procedures. ToxVal is one of the databases used to build CompTox, so the data is also available there (Williams et al.,
2017).
The CTV Predictor is a tool that uses a QSAR model to estimate toxicity values (Wignall et al., 2018). When using the CTV, predicted values are presented with a 95% confidence interval on both the upper and lower end and an associated applicability domain, which indicates the uncertainty associated with the prediction (Wignall et al., 2018). If a compound
24 has an experimentally measured toxicity value from U.S. Federal and State agencies, the CTV
Predictor presents this experimental value and, when available, the agency that reported the value. An applicability domain greater than three indicates that there were not enough similar compound domains for the QSAR model to be reliable; therefore, these values were excluded.
The toxicity data from the ToxVal database were experimentally derived, so they took priority over predicted CTV. The database that the CTV Predictor used to provide experimental toxicity values was last updated in May 2018; however, the ToxVal database was updated more recently and may have contained new data not included by the predictor tool. Therefore, toxicity values were first searched for in the newer ToxVal database and the CTV Predictor used next to search for predicted values. For the compounds on the working list, there were 427 toxicity values available in ToxVal and 2,013 predicted toxicity values from the CTV.
2.2.3 Exposure pathway
A critical step in evaluating risk is determining how a receptor could be exposed to a potential contaminant. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) (2019) defines a complete exposure pathway as one that describes: (i) the source or release of the contaminant, (ii) the fate and transport mechanisms that affect the contaminant as it travels through the environment, (iii) the specific points and routes the contaminant follows to reach
(iv) a potential receptor or exposed populations. These components were incorporated into the chemical prioritization scheme, and the metrics used to define exposure were chosen based on the exposure pathway.
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We focused on human oral and inhalation exposure to groundwater contaminated with produced water from reuse applications or spills (Figure 3), which is explained in detail in this section.
Figure 3. Exposure pathway used for the prioritization scheme. Produced water enters the groundwater from either a re-use application or a spill. The blue arrows indicate the path of the produced water. It is assumed that all compounds on the working list entered the groundwater. A human receptor is then exposed to the contaminated groundwater by ingestion of contaminated tap water or inhalation of contaminated shower water.
Contaminant source or release: Produced water was considered the contaminant source. A spill during transport to a disposal site can result in produced water contaminating groundwater near the site of the incident. Oil and gas wells that experience integrity failure can cause environmental releases of produced water when the water leaks into the surrounding groundwater (Gandhi et al., 2018; Pichtel, 2016). Produced water used for land applications, such as agriculture or livestock watering, can seep into the groundwater. The contaminated
26 groundwater can then flow to a well or aquifer that supplies water to homes, which is where a human receptor would encounter the contaminant.
Environmental fate, transport, and uptake: Environmental fate and transport parameters are used to evaluate how a compound moves through media and which media the compound is likely to partition to at equilibrium. Uptake accounts for the accumulation potential of a compound once it has been exposed to an organism.
Exposure point and route: An exposure point is a location where a human receptor could interact with contaminated environmental media. The exposure route describes the methods by which a human receptor interacts with the contaminated water. We considered two routes: (i) oral ingestion of tap water, (ii) inhalation of tap or shower water.
Exposed populations: The potential receptors in this pathway are humans in the general population. There are no age groups within the population that are more likely to use or come into contact with the contaminated groundwater than others. A receptor would be any person who uses the contaminated water for activities such as drinking or showering in their home.
2.2.4 Exposure domain
The exposure domain was evaluated using the following methods, which are similar to those used by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR, 2019) and National
Research Council (NRC) (2014). Both agencies use an approach based on a combination of environmental fate and transport processes to measure the risk of contaminants in different exposure pathways. In this risk prioritization scheme, the Henry’s Law constant (KH), the organic carbon-water partition coefficient (Koc), the biodegradation half-life (t1/2), and the bioconcentration factor (BCF) were used to evaluate the exposure domain. We downloaded the
27 predicted values for these metrics from OPERA. Both OPERA and CompTox use the term “soil adsorption coefficient” instead of “organic carbon-water partition coefficient”, which is the term that will be used in this manuscript.
In our exposure pathway, the organic carbon-water partition coefficient, the biodegradation half-life, and the Henry’s Law constant, were used to evaluate fate and transport; and the bioconcentration factor was used to assess uptake.
We used Koc to measure the potential transport of a compound, or its mobility, in the groundwater. The Koc evaluates a compound’s equilibrium partitioning between the organic carbon in soil and water. A higher Koc indicates that a compound has a higher affinity for soil than water, which decreases the transport potential in the groundwater. We also considered using the octanol-water partition coefficient (Kow) to evaluate mobility. The Kow is the ratio of a compound’s concentration in octanol, an organic fatty acid, to its concentration in water at equilibrium conditions. There is a positive correlation between the Koc and Kow, with some Koc estimates being a function of the Kow (Briggs, 1981). A relationship also exists between the Kow and the bioconcentration factor, which measures the concentration of a compound in an organism’s tissue to the compound’s concentration in the adjacent environmental media. We used the BCF to evaluate uptake because it determines whether a compound will bioaccumulate in a human receptor or be excreted by the human receptor. Like the Koc, the BCF can be calculated using the Kow (National Research Council, 2014). Compounds with larger BCF values are more lipophilic and compounds with larger Kow values are more hydrophobic, which is representative of the positive correlation between the two values. Because a higher BCF indicates a higher exposure potential, including Kow as a metric would merely amplify the
28 effects of the BCF. Thus, we determined that including the Kow as a measure of transport in our analysis was redundant.
A compound’s degradation half-life in different media is commonly used to evaluate its environmental fate. We used the biodegradation half-life instead of a media-specific half-life, such as the water or air degradation half-life, in our analysis because it accounts for multiple environmental media in a single value. The biodegradation half-life is defined as the length of time required for microorganisms to degrade a compound in water, soil, or sediment to half of its initial concentration (Aronson et al., 2006). Higher half-lives, which correspond to slower degradation rates, indicate that a compound is more likely to remain in the water long enough to reach a receptor.
The Henry’s Law constant measures the equilibrium partitioning of a compound between water and air. Compounds with higher KH values are more volatile so are more likely to be in air than water. Therefore, KH may be used to describe two, potentially contradicting scenarios in our exposure pathway: volatilization potential in groundwater and inhalation exposure from shower or tap water. In the first scenario, a compound with a higher KH is more likely to volatilize before reaching a receptor, which means there would be a lower risk of exposure to a receptor. In the second scenario, higher KH values would increase the exposure risk for inhalation of the compound because volatilization would occur at the receptor’s point of contact. Both scenarios are possible, but the inhalation exposure from shower or tap water is more likely to occur (Lee et al., 2002; Franco et al., 2007). This scenario is not only possible, but also represents a worst-case scenario and is thus the better option for the risk-based prioritization in this study.
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2.2.4.1 Mobility
To determine the appropriateness of using the organic carbon-water partition coefficient (Koc) to describe the transport category of the exposure domain, we estimated the mobility of five well-studied reference compounds (Table 2). We also compared their respective
Koc and octanol-water partition coefficients (Kow) to verify that, given the interrelationship of Koc and Kow (Briggs, 1981), the Kow is redundant. We selected these five chemicals because they have experimental data from the PHYSPROP database (U.S. EPA NCCT, 2017) for all four metrics in the exposure domain and for the Kow.
We used Equation 1 to estimate mobility by calculating the time for these compounds to travel a setback distance of 94 meters (t94), which is the average distance required between a well and buildings or water sources in the U.S. (Richardson et al., 2013). Physical properties of the subsurface were estimated based on a porous aquifer with sandy soil. We assumed that the groundwater could be characterized as having a “fast” flow of 1 m/day and a soil porosity of
0.4, which is approximately the average of sandy soil. Equation 1 uses the setback distance (d), retardation coefficient (R), and the average linear groundwater velocity (vw) to calculate the transport time.
푑푅 Equation 1 푡 = 푣
Equation 2 uses the density of the aquifer sediment (ρs), the distribution coefficient (Kd), and the soil porosity (n) to calculate the retardation coefficient as follows: