Concentrations of two artificial sweeteners, acesulfame and sucralose, in groundwater along a section of beach at Grand Bend, Ontario

In an effort to assess potential nutrient loading to Lake Huron from groundwater impacted by septic systems, multi-level monitoring wells were installed along a 1.7 km section of the beach at Grand Bend, Ontario, and sampled in June 2014 for various water quality parameters. The groundwater sampled from these wells approximates the chemistry of the groundwater discharging to Lake Huron at this location. The artificial sweeteners, acesulfame and sucralose, were used as wastewater indicators to confirm the presence or absence of a septic influence for each sample collected. Acesulfame and sucralose are not broken down in the body, or completely removed during wastewater treatment, and therefore end up in wastewater effluent, whether the effluent is from municipal wastewater treatment plants or from private septic systems. All 78 beach groundwater samples analyzed had acesulfame concentrations greater than the method detection limit (mdl) of 2 ng/L, indicating a contribution of water derived from septic effluent. 83% of the samples had sucralose concentrations greater than the mdl of 20 ng/L. Information on the analytical methods used and interpretation of the dataset can be found in Journal of Great Lakes Research 45 (2019) 642-650. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jglr.2019.03.003