Phosphorus (P) is an essential and limited resource. Municipal wastewater is a promising source of P via reuse and could be used to replace P derived from phosphate rocks. The agricultural use of sewage sludge is restricted by legislation or is not practiced in several European countries due to environmental risks posed by organic micropollutants and pathogens. Several technologies have been developed in recent years to recover wastewater P. However, these technologies target different P-containing flows in wastewater treatment plants (effluent, digester supernatant, sewage sludge, and sewage sludge ash), use diverse engineering approaches and differ greatly with respect to P recycling rate, potential of removing or destroying pollutants, product quality, environmental impact and cost. This work compares 19 relevant P recovery technologies by considering their relationships with existing wastewater and sludge treatment systems. A combination of different methods, such as material flow analysis, damage units, reference soil method, annuity method, integrated cost calculation and a literature study on solubility, fertilizing effects and handling of recovered materials, is used to evaluate the different technologies with respect to technical, ecological and economic aspects. With regard to the manifold origins of data an uncertainty concept considering validity of data sources is applied. This analysis revealed that recovery from flows with dissolved P produces clean and plant-available materials. These techniques may even be beneficial from economic and technical perspectives under specific circumstances. However, the recovery rates (a maximum of 25%) relative to the wastewater treatment plant influent are relatively low. The approaches that recover P from sewage sludge apply complex technologies and generally achieve effective removal of heavy metals at moderate recovery rates (~40-50% relative to the WWTP input) and comparatively high costs. Sewage sludge ash is the most promising P source, with recovery rates of 60-90% relative to the wastewater P. The costs highly depend on the purity requirements of the recycled products but can be kept comparatively low, especially if synergies with existing industrial processes are exploited.

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Numerous bacterial genetic markers are available for the molecular detection of human sources of fecal pollution in environmental waters. However, widespread application is hindered by a lack of knowledge regarding geographical stability, limiting implementation to a small number of well-characterized regions. This study investigates the geographic distribution of five human-associated genetic markers (HF183/BFDrev, HF183/BacR287, BacHum-UCD, BacH, and Lachno2) in municipal wastewaters (raw and treated) from 29 urban and rural wastewater treatment plants (750–4 400 000 population equivalents) from 13 countries spanning six continents. In addition, genetic markers were tested against 280 human and nonhuman fecal samples from domesticated, agricultural and wild animal sources. Findings revealed that all genetic markers are present in consistently high concentrations in raw (median log10 7.2–8.0 marker equivalents (ME) 100 mL–1) and biologically treated wastewater samples (median log10 4.6–6.0 ME 100 mL–1) regardless of location and population. The false positive rates of the various markers in nonhuman fecal samples ranged from 5% to 47%. Results suggest that several genetic markers have considerable potential for measuring human-associated contamination in polluted environmental waters. This will be helpful in water quality monitoring, pollution modeling and health risk assessment (as demonstrated by QMRAcatch) to guide target-oriented water safety management across the globe.

This was a detailed investigation of the seasonal occurrence, dynamics, removal and resistance of human-associated genetic Bacteroidetes faecal markers (GeBaM) compared with ISO-based standard faecal indicator bacteria (SFIB), human-specific viral faecal markers and one human-associated Bacteroidetes phage in raw and treated wastewater of municipal and domestic origin. Characteristics of the selected activated sludge wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) from Austria and Germany were studied in detail (WWTPs, n = 13, connected populations from 3 to 49000 individuals), supported by volume-proportional automated 24-h sampling and chemical water quality analysis. GeBaM were consistently detected in high concentrations in raw (median log10 8.6 marker equivalents (ME) 100 ml−1) and biologically treated wastewater samples (median log10 6.2–6.5 ME 100 ml−1), irrespective of plant size, type and time of the season (n = 53–65). GeBaM, Escherichia coli, and enterococci concentrations revealed the same range of statistical variability for raw (multiplicative standard deviations s* = 2.3–3.0) and treated wastewater (s* = 3.7–4.5), with increased variability after treatment. Clostridium perfringens spores revealed the lowest variability for raw wastewater (s* = 1.5). In raw wastewater correlations among microbiological parameters were only detectable between GeBaM, C. perfringens and JC polyomaviruses. Statistical associations amongst microbial parameters increased during wastewater treatment. Two plants with advanced treatment were also investigated, revealing a minimum log10 5.0 (10th percentile) reduction of GeBaM in the activated sludge membrane bioreactor, but no reduction of the genetic markers during UV irradiation (254 nm). This study highlights the potential of human-associated GeBaM to complement wastewater impact monitoring based on the determination of SFIB. In addition, human-specific JC polyomaviruses and adenoviruses seem to be a valuable support if highly specific markers are needed.

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e Because of high diurnal water quality fluctuations in raw municipal wastewater, the use of proportional autosampling over a period of 24 h at municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) to evaluate carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus removal has become a standard in many countries. Microbial removal or load estimation at municipal WWTPs, however, is still based on manually recovered grab samples. The goal of this study was to establish basic knowledge regarding the persistence of standard bacterial fecal indicators and Bacteroidetes genetic microbial source tracking markers in municipal wastewater in order to evaluate their suitability for automated sampling, as the potential lack of persistence is the main argument against such procedures. Raw and secondary treated wastewater of municipal origin from representative and well-characterized biological WWTPs without disinfection (organic carbon and nutrient removal) was investigated in microcosm experiments at 5 and 21°C with a total storage time of 32 h (including a 24-h autosampling component and an 8-h postsampling phase). Vegetative Escherichia coli and enterococci, as well as Clostridium perfringens spores, were selected as indicators for cultivation-based standard enumeration. Molecular analysis focused on total (AllBac) and human-associated genetic Bacteroidetes (BacHum-UCD, HF183 TaqMan) markers by using quantitative PCR, as well as 16S rRNA gene-based next-generation sequencing. The microbial parameters showed high persistence in both raw and treated wastewater at 5°C under the storage conditions used. Surprisingly, and in contrast to results obtained with treated wastewater, persistence of the microbial markers in raw wastewater was also high at 21°C. On the basis of our results, 24-h autosampling procedures with 5°C storage conditions can be recommended for the investigation of fecal indicators or Bacteroidetes genetic markers at municipal WWTPs. Such autosampling procedures will contribute to better understanding and monitoring of municipal WWTPs as sources of fecal pollution in water resources. Microbial fecal contamination of aquatic systems by municipal wastewater represents a significant threat to public health (1). Thus, appropriate wastewater disposal technologies and fecal pollution monitoring programs are critical for safeguarding our water resources. Standard fecal indicators, as well as recently developed genetic microbial source tracking (MST) markers, are used to monitor the microbial fecal loads emitted from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and their impact on receiving waters (2-6). Microbiological sampling of WWTPs is commonly based on manually recovered samples (7). However, the concept behind these methods neglects temporal fluctuations in water quality. Large diurnal variations have been reported for key chemical parameters, such as nutrients, in raw wastewater (8). Determination of the efficacy of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus removal at WWTPs is thus frequently based on automated diurnal sampling. For example, in Austria, auto...