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Emerging contaminants in wastewater, stormwater runoff, and surface water: Application as chemical markers for diffuse sources
- Source :
- The Science of the total environment. 676
- Publication Year :
- 2018
-
Abstract
- Diffuse sources of pollution such as sewer leakages, sewer overflows, illicit discharges and stormwater runoff affect the urban surface water quality but often remain unknown. Therefore, the development of chemical markers for identifying and characterizing the origin of diffuse sources of pollution in urban surface waters is a requisite for protecting and managing urban water resources. In this study, the occurrence of 31 emerging contaminants (ECs) in untreated wastewater, treated wastewater, urban stormwater runoff, agricultural stormwater runoff, and freshwater bodies was investigated. Artificial sweeteners (ASs), pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) were more frequently detected in the collected water samples. In raw wastewater, 21 target ECs were detected 100% in the collected samples with median concentrations ranging from 49.6 to 77,721 ng/L, while in freshwater bodies, only 13 compounds were found with detection frequency >50%. The median concentration of the majority of detected ECs in freshwater samples was below 100 ng/L. The suitability of ECs as chemical markers of diffuse sources in an urban watershed was assessed using a suite of criteria, including the detection frequency (DF), detection ratio (DR) (i.e. the ratio between median concentration and method quantification limit of a compound) and attenuation rates (i.e., biodegradation, sorption and abiotic degradation) in wastewater treatment processes. In addition, we propose a new key criterion, the concentration ratio (CR) of labile to conservative compounds, to evaluate the applicability of suitable chemical markers for source tracking. Using this new set of criteria (i.e. CR, DF, DR and attenuation rates), our analysis showed that among the investigated ECs, only acesulfame (ACE), acetaminophen (ACT), cyclamate (CYC), saccharin (SAC) were suitable as chemical markers of diffuse sources in surface waters. For caffeine (CF), N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide (DEET), crotamiton (CTMT), triclocarban (TCC) and triclosan (TCS), their median concentration ratio to sucralose (SUC) in water bodies was consistently higher than that in raw wastewater, suggesting that these compounds might be unsuitable as chemical markers of sewage leakage in surface waters for this study area.
- Subjects :
- Environmental Engineering
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
business.industry
Stormwater
Sewage
010501 environmental sciences
01 natural sciences
Pollution
Environmental impact of pharmaceuticals and personal care products
Wastewater
Environmental chemistry
Environmental Chemistry
Environmental science
Sewage treatment
Water quality
business
Surface runoff
Waste Management and Disposal
Surface water
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 18791026
- Volume :
- 676
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- The Science of the total environment
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....4ef5d2b42e36d9abd8b6ad1c37297df3