Date of Award
8-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Environmental Engineering and Earth Science
Committee Chair/Advisor
Sudeep Popat
Committee Member
David Freedman
Committee Member
Christopher McMahan
Abstract
Chemical compounds, including licit and illicit drugs can be measured in wastewater and used to assess community drug consumption, providing valuable information for public health agencies, law enforcement, and local communities. While previous research primarily focused on estimating the per capita community drug consumption using back-calculation, this research focused on utilizing literature-derived parameters including drug dosage, renal excretion fraction, and sewer stability to develop a framework to estimate the user populations using Monte Carlo simulations. Samples were collected from two wastewater treatment facilities representing the Generostee Creek WWTP’s sewershed (GCS) and Mauldin Road WRRF’s sewershed (MRS). The target analytes included cocaine, fentanyl, methamphetamine, nicotine, and xylazine including their primary metabolites, benzoylecgonine, norfentanyl, amphetamine, trans-3’-hydroxycotinine, and 4-hydroxyxylazine, respectively. Observed concentrations from GCS and MRS were compared to the Regional and National datasets using one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s HSD test to evaluate differences in mean concentrations among the four groups. All target analytes exhibited a statistically significant result (p< 0.05) after conducting ANOVA test except for amphetamine indicating that all four areas have roughly the same mean concentrations. Monte Carlo simulations were performed for cocaine, fentanyl, and methamphetamine to estimate the number of user populations within the two sewersheds. The estimated user populations were 1.4%, 0.067%, 0.82% for cocaine, fentanyl, and methamphetamine, respectively, in the GCS, and 2.1%, 0.16%, 0.43% in the MRS.
Recommended Citation
Espinosa, Carl Michael E., "Evaluating Drug Concentration Profiles in Wastewater to Develop a Framework for Estimating Drug User Populations" (2026). All Theses. 4811.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_theses/4811