The use of reclaimed wastewater (RWW) for the irrigation of crops may result in the continuous exposure of the agricultural environment to antibiotics, antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). In recent years, certain evidence indicate that antibiotics and resistance genes may become disseminated in agricultural soils as a result of the amendment with manure and biosolids and irrigation with RWW. Antibiotic residues and other contaminants may undergo sorption/desorption and transformation processes (both biotic and abiotic), and have the potential to affect the soil microbiota. Antibiotics found in the soil pore water (bioavailable fraction) as a result of RWW irrigation may be taken up by crop plants, bioaccumulate within plant tissues and subsequently enter the food webs; potentially resulting in detrimental public health implications. It can be also hypothesized that ARGs can spread among soil and plant-associated bacteria, a fact that may have serious human health implications. The majority of studies dealing with these environmental and social challenges related with the use of RWW for irrigation were conducted under laboratory or using, somehow, controlled conditions. This critical review discusses the state of the art on the fate of antibiotics, ARB and ARGs in agricultural environment where RWW is applied for irrigation. The implications associated with the uptake of antibiotics by plants (uptake mechanisms) and the potential risks to public health are highlighted. Additionally, knowledge gaps as well as challenges and opportunities are addressed, with the aim of boosting future research towards an enhanced understanding of the fate and implications of these contaminants of emerging concern in the agricultural environment. These are key issues in a world where the increasing water scarcity and the continuous appeal of circular economy demand answers for a long-term safe use of RWW for irrigation.

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Two outdoor subsurface flow beds (control and experimental, 10 m x 1 m) were filled with a substrate of pea gravel (3-6 mm) to a depth of 60 cm. The experimental bed or small-scale constructed wetland was originally planted with Typha seedlings at a density of 7.5 plants/m2. Both beds (experimental and control) were treated with the same aqueous concentrations of diesel oil under identical dosing conditions. The average overall hydrocarbon removal efficiencies at the three monitored depths (top, middle and bottom) in the subsurface systems were 80.1 +/- 9.8%, 78.0 +/- 9.1% and 71.6 +/- 10.0% in the experimental bed and 72.3 +/- 11.9%, 69.1 +/- 10.3% and 63.4 +/- 9.4% in the control bed. The differences in the hydrocarbon removal efficiencies between corresponding months in 1999 and 2000 were statistically analysed and are generally not significant. The individual hydrocarbon removal efficiencies exceeded 60% in the top sections of both beds except for C-11 and C-25 with C-23 and C-26 also reduced in the control bed. Overall differences in the removal efficiencies of the planted and the unplanted beds as well as at different depths in both systems, indicate that Typha related removal processes complementing adsorption onto the gravel substrate are occurring.

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The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) requirement that all surface water bodies achieve good ecological status is still a goal for many regulatory authorities in England and Wales. This paper describes field and laboratory studies designed to identify metal contaminant loadings and their distributions within water bodies located in the Lower Lee catchment (London, UK). Water and sediment samples have been collected from increasingly urbanised sites on the River Lee and its main tributaries over a two-year period with samples analysed for total concentrations of cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel, tin, and zinc. Complimentary batch tests indicate a positive relationship between aqueous metal concentrations and the batch test-derived sediment metal release data, particularly during wet weather events. Field data indicate a dynamic relationship between water and sediment concentrations with both being capable of exceeding relevant environmental quality standards/sediment quality guidelines at all sites. Mean sediment metal concentrations across all sites were found to be highest for Cu (141.1 ± 111.0 µg g−1), Pb (175.7 ± 83.0 µg g−1), and Zn (499.9 ± 264.7 µg g−1) with Zn demonstrating elevated mean water concentrations (17.2 ± 13.8 µg L−1) followed by Ni (15.6 ± 11.4 µg L−1) and Cu (11.1 ± 17.8 µg L−1).

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