Multivariate Analyses for Monitoring EDCs And PPCPs In Surface Water

The analysis of endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) and pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCP), present at trace levels in surface waters, is often expensive, time-consuming and complex. Implementing effective monitoring strategies for these compounds is essential to determine the types of analytes, sampling locations and sampling frequencies. Multivariate analyses were employed to investigate the patterns and co-occurrence of EDCs and PPCPs in Lake Mead, NV for these purposes. The results of clustering analysis and principal component analysis to identify the patterns among compounds demonstrated that selected pharmaceuticals tended to co-occur with each other while hormones did not show co-occurrences with other compounds. The results of clustering analysis and discriminant analysis to investigate the spatial variation of EDCs and PPCPs eliminated redundant sampling locations, verifying the current selection of sampling locations in Lake Mead. The results of autocorrelation provided optimal sampling frequency for EDCs and PPCPs, suggesting either monthly or quarterly monitoring of these compounds in Lake Mead. The patterns of the compounds could be site specific, depending on climatic and hydrological conditions of the water systems but our approaches will facilitate effective assessment and monitoring of EDCs and PPCPs in surface water.