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Abstract
Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCP) are under investigation because of the potential to negatively affect human health and aquatic life. Secondary wastewater treatment processes do not effectively or efficiently remove these contaminants from wastewater, resulting in trace levels of PPCPs found in water sources around the world. Constructed wetlands have shown the potential to be a tertiary treatment to remove these contaminants while being cost effective to implement, maintain, and operate. We studied the Sewanee Wetlands to determine the efficacy for PPCP removal from partially treated wastewater. Of the 14 PPCPs studied, the wetland significantly removed atenolol (p = 0.0002), caffeine (p = 0.0253), and DEET (p = 0.0367). In a sediment mesocosm study, sorption to wetland sediments occurred for 7 of the 14 PPCPs studied. The Sewanee Wetland shows potential as a tertiary treatment to remove PPCPs.