Occurrence of Pharmaceuticals in Wastewater and Their Interaction with Shallow Aquifers: A Case Study of Horní Beřkovice, Czech Republic

Abstract

Abstract:The application of innovative technologies in water management, such as wastewater reuse, requires a deeper understanding of emerging pollutants, including pharmaceuticals. This study presents a unique pilot site at Horní Beřkovice in Central Bohemia, where wastewater parameters are significantly influenced by the effluent from a local psychiatric hospital, and where the treated wastewater infiltrates into a shallow aquifer over a long period. The survey compared the quality parameters of local wastewater with those of the wastewater in four other catchments with no sources of concentrated pharmaceutical contamination. A total of 10 pharmaceuticals were detected while monitoring a common sewage system, but their number increased 3-fold at Horní Beřkovice. The water quality data revealed the effectiveness of the removal of pharmaceuticals from wastewater at the local sewage treatment plant and tracked the fate of substances that move from the treatment plant into the recharge ponds and then gradually into groundwater. The findings showed a significant decrease in all the monitored micropollutants that remained bound in sediments and in the unsaturated zone. Their passage into groundwater was highly reduced, and they virtually disappear after a few hundred meters in the saturated zone. The only exception is carbamazepine. This substance passes through the treatment technology and unsaturated zone. It systematically appears in the groundwater samples collected about 1 km from the infiltration site.

Monitoring and Ecotoxicity Assessment of Emerging Contaminants in Wastewater Discharge in the City of Prague (Czech Republic)

“…Information on the occurrence of ECs in Prague is scarce or unpublished. However, the surveys conducted by Kozisek et al [14] and Rozman et al [15] revealed the existence of these micropollutants in some Czech surface waters, groundwater, and in WWTPs' discharge. The present work studied the occurrence of 46 emerging contaminants from the PPCPs group in the secondary effluent of the WWTP of Prague.…”

Coupling membrane filtration and wet air oxidation for advanced wastewater treatment: Performance at the pilot scale and process intensification potential

“…The three different wastewaters used were synthetized based on the literature, and feedback from the industrial partner (A3i). The effluents were prepared with distilled water.…”

Use of Ultrasound as an Advanced Oxidation Process for the Degradation of Emerging Pollutants in Water

“…Hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) can also be formed in the US process, as described in Equation (5). In spite of the fact that H 2 O 2 can scavenge HO• or be decomposed (Equations (13)-(15), respectively), it can be involved in the oxidation of ECs, as well as on the production of a higher amount of HO•, when US process is combined with UV radiation.…”

“…The presence of ECs in the environment was not measured or controlled in the past because they did not cause concern and, in general terms, there were no studies demonstrating a health risk to humankind and living beings. Additionally, the use of ECs was not as high as it is currently; and they were not detected in water, since advances in instrumental analytical chemistry have only recently permitted their quantification at ultra-trace and trace concentrations [4,5], i.e., at concentrations from ng L −1 to µg L −1 [3,6]. Indeed, in the last years, ECs have been identified and quantified in effluents from wastewater treatment plant effluents, surface water, groundwater and even drinking water [3,5,7,8].…”