Rights statement: This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Environmental Science and Technology, copyright ©2018 American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.8b03204
Accepted author manuscript, 2.04 MB, PDF document
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Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Public water supply is responsible for significant fluxes of inorganic nitrogen in the environment
AU - Ascott, Matthew
AU - Gooddy, Daren
AU - Surridge, Benjamin William James
N1 - This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Environmental Science and Technology, copyright ©2018 American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.8b03204
PY - 2018
Y1 - 2018
N2 - Understanding anthropogenic disturbance of macronutrient cycles is essential for assessing risks facing ecosystems. For the first time, we quantified inorganic nitrogen (N) fluxes associated with abstraction, mains water leakage and transfers of treated water related to public water supply. In England, the mass of nitrate-N removed from aquatic environments by abstraction (ABS-NO3-N) was estimated to be 24.2 kt N/yr. This is equal to six times estimates of organic N removal by abstraction, 15 times in-channel storage of organic N and 30 times floodplain storage of organic N. ABS-NO3-N is also between 3-39% of N removal by denitrification in the hydrosphere. Mains water leakage of nitrate-N (MWL-NO3-N) returns 3.62 kt N/yr to the environment, equating to approximately 15% of ABS-NO3-N . In urban areas, MWL-NO3-N can represent up to 20% of total N inputs. MWL-NO3-N is predicted to increase by up to 66% by 2020 following implementation of treated water transfers. ABS-NO3-N and MWL-NO3-N should be considered in future assessments of N fluxes, in order to accurately quantify anthropogenic disturbances to N cycles. The methodology we developed is transferable, using widely-available datasets and could be used to quantify N fluxes associated with public water supply across the world.
AB - Understanding anthropogenic disturbance of macronutrient cycles is essential for assessing risks facing ecosystems. For the first time, we quantified inorganic nitrogen (N) fluxes associated with abstraction, mains water leakage and transfers of treated water related to public water supply. In England, the mass of nitrate-N removed from aquatic environments by abstraction (ABS-NO3-N) was estimated to be 24.2 kt N/yr. This is equal to six times estimates of organic N removal by abstraction, 15 times in-channel storage of organic N and 30 times floodplain storage of organic N. ABS-NO3-N is also between 3-39% of N removal by denitrification in the hydrosphere. Mains water leakage of nitrate-N (MWL-NO3-N) returns 3.62 kt N/yr to the environment, equating to approximately 15% of ABS-NO3-N . In urban areas, MWL-NO3-N can represent up to 20% of total N inputs. MWL-NO3-N is predicted to increase by up to 66% by 2020 following implementation of treated water transfers. ABS-NO3-N and MWL-NO3-N should be considered in future assessments of N fluxes, in order to accurately quantify anthropogenic disturbances to N cycles. The methodology we developed is transferable, using widely-available datasets and could be used to quantify N fluxes associated with public water supply across the world.
U2 - 10.1021/acs.est.8b03204
DO - 10.1021/acs.est.8b03204
M3 - Journal article
VL - 52
SP - 14050
EP - 14060
JO - Environmental Science and Technology
JF - Environmental Science and Technology
SN - 0013-936X
IS - 24
ER -