Most people do not realize that their medicine chests, bathrooms and kitchen sinks are the starting point for water contaminants entering our rivers and streams. The culprits? Pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs). Pharmaceuticals include both prescription and over the counter medications, and nutritional supplements. Personal care products with harmful ingredients or by products range from soap and shampoo, to cosmetics and fragrances.
How Pharmaceuticals Enter Our Rivers and Streams
Every time you flush medicine down your toilet or sink, you are sending it to your local waterway. While your wastewater typically goes into a municipal wastewater treatment plant, wastewater treatment cannot remove most of the chemicals and other compounds in pharmaceuticals that pollute the water and that can cause harm to aquatic species. Unfortunately at this time, most people dispose of medicines by flushing them down their toilets or sink, or just throwing them into the trash (in one study, almost 90 percent of the participants said they dispose their unused and/or unwanted medicines via the toilet, sink, trash, or by simply not disposing them at all). Health care facilities or providers such as clinics, labs and pharmacies can also be sources of improperly disposed pharmaceuticals.
Pharmaceuticals also enter our water indirectly as waste from humans and animals. The source problem isn’t just limited to humans; we bathe our pets with soap, we treat their illnesses with medication. Outside urban areas livestock operations frequently use medications or other compounds such as steroids in producing meat, dairy products and eggs. Approximately two thirds of the beef cattle raised in the United States are given growth hormones; up to 75 percent of the hormones and other drugs given to animals end up being eliminated through their urine and manure.
Harmful ingredients from pharmaceuticals are becoming more common in our rivers and streams. Studies on the presence and levels of pharmaceutical chemicals have been conducted for a number of years, with recent studies confirming the persistence of these compounds in rivers. A 2002 study by the U.S. Geological Study tested 139 streams nationwide for 95 different chemicals; 80 percent of the stream water samples contained at least one third or more of these chemicals. Land use along the study streams included residential, industrial and agricultural. Another USGS study, published in 2006, found that levels of pharmaceutical chemicals, including endocrine disrupting compounds increased dramatically in water samples taken downstream from a wastewater treatment plant.
The hydrological connection of water sources also means that the presence of pharmaceutical agents will not be limited to rivers and streams, and that impacts from these chemicals can spread to aquatic species which live in other water bodies. As a receiver of river and creek water, pharmaceuticals can enter lakes and wetlands. Groundwater quality can also be impacted by the quality of the river waters recharging an aquifer.
them down their toilets or sink, or just throwing them into the trash (in one study, almost 90 percent of the participants said they dispose their unused and/or unwanted medicines via the toilet, sink, trash, or by simply not disposing them at all). Health care facilities or providers such as clinics, labs and pharmacies can also be sources of improperly disposed pharmaceuticals. 
presence and levels of pharmaceutical chemicals have been conducted for a number of years, with recent studies confirming the persistence of these compounds in rivers. A 2002 study by the U.S. Geological Study tested 139 streams nationwide for 95 different chemicals; 80 percent of the stream water samples contained at least one third or more of these chemicals. Land use along the study streams included residential, industrial and agricultural. Another USGS study, published in 2006, found that levels of pharmaceutical chemicals, including endocrine disrupting compounds increased dramatically in water samples taken downstream from a wastewater treatment plant.