The land application of biosolids is an emerging field of study, but it is controversial amongst researchers. This is primarily due to concerns about the environmental impact of potential contaminants in biosolids. The risk of contamination is notably a local issue in the Thompson-Nicola region (BC Ministry of Environment 2016). One class of contaminants of concern that have been shown to leach from biosolids is Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products (PPCP) (Hydromantis 2009). The goal of this project is to develop a method to determine three PPCP analytes in aqueous samples so that it could be applied to surface waters and biosolid leachates. Further, this work would allow these samples to be investigated locally. The analytes chosen for screening were triclocarban, triclosan, and naproxen as they are good indicators of the presence of PPCP in environmental samples. The instrumentation used was High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) paired with Diode Array Detection (DAD). Numerous variations of solid phase extraction (SPE) were investigated in order to improve detection limits. The optimum SPE technique was coupled with HPLC-DAD, and applied to spiked and unspiked water samples.
