Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2014PR162B

AN INTEGRATED APPROACH FOR THE DETECTION OF ESTROGENIC ACTIVITY IN A TROPICAL URBAN WATERSHED: PHASE III

Institute: Puerto Rico
Year Established: 2014 Start Date: 2014-03-01 End Date: 2015-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $16,600 Total Non-Federal Funds: $34,762

Principal Investigators: Jorge Ortiz-Zayas

Project Summary: Urban rivers are receiving increasing inputs of treated and untreated industrial and domestic wastewater. Concern exists that many natural and synthetic chemicals (named endocrine disrupting compounds or EDCs) may interfere with the endocrine system of both humans and wildlife. There has not been any formal screening of EDC's in tropical urban rivers. We propose application of a high-throughput gene expression assay for screening steroid-like activity of emergent contaminants in surface waters in Puerto Rico. The use of this yeast-based assay system is convenient due to the rapid growth rate of S. cerevisiae, relative low assay cost, and the high conservation of regulatory mechanisms between mammalian and yeast cells in regards to this system. However, the dynamic nature of human activities in a urban watershed requires a more comprehensive monitoring approach. The Rio Piedras, an urban river in San Juan, Puerto Rico was intensively monitored for estrogenic activity. Preliminary data revealed estrogenic activity levels in the picomoles (pM) range. Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) analyses show levels of Benzylbutyl Phthalate (BBP) and Bis-2-hetylhexyl (DEHP) at parts-per-million (ppm) along the Rio Piedras Watershed for the first sampling period.