The significance of hazardous chemicals in wastewater treatment works effluents

Abstract

The advent of increasingly stringent and wider ranging European Union legislation relating to water and the environment has required regulators to assess compliance risk and to respond by formulating appropriate pollution control measures. To support this process the UK Water Industry has completed a national Chemicals Investigation Programme (CIP), to monitor over 160 wastewater treatment works (WwTWs) for 70 determinands. Final effluent concentrations of zinc, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (fluoranthene, benzo(a)pyrene, benzo(b)fluoranthene, benzo(k)fluoranthene, benzo(g,h,i)perylene and indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene), "penta" congeners (BDEs) 47 and 99, tributyltin, triclosan, erythromycin, oxytetracycline, ibuprofen, propranolol, fluoxetine, diclofenac, 17β-estradiol and 17α-ethinyl estradiol exceeded existing or proposed Environmental Quality Standards (EQSs) in over 50% of WwTWs. Dilution by receiving water might ensure compliance with EQSs for these chemicals, apart from the BDEs. However, in some cases there will be insufficient dilution to ensure compliance and additional management options may be required.

Nutrient fluxes from domestic wastewater: A national-scale historical perspective for the UK 1800–2010

“…This is a rounded value, based on the expected stoichiometric ratio for carbohydrate (2.67), observed average values of 3.3 (Gardner et al, 2012) and 3.8 (Dubber & Gray, 2010), and a value of 3.0 recommended by www.wastewaterinfo.com. Fluxes were then derived using water usage figures to give estimates of 18.2 kg organic C/person/year for a typical raw municipal wastewater (Henze and Comeau, 2008;water usage 200 l/person/day) and 17.6 to 25.6 kg organic C/person/year ; interquartile range of influent to 16 WWTWs in the UK with average water usage 270 l/person/day).…”

Use of a Battery of Chemical and Ecotoxicological Methods for the Assessment of the Efficacy of Wastewater Treatment Processes to Remove Estrogenic Potency

“…The data obtained from chemical analysis can be used to determine compliance with individual predicted no effect concentrations (PNEC) 20 or environmental quality standards (EQS) 21 of specific individual compounds and therefore such methods are vital for regulatory compliance data. Furthermore, targeted or non-targeted chemical analysis methods allow the identification and quantitation of individual compounds or isomers compared with biological methods, which provide a total response.…”

Fresh Water Savings Through the Use of Municipal Effluents in Concrete Pavement

“…However, most of these are usually in small concentrations unless the treatment plant processes wastes from chemical industries and even then by the time the wastewater becomes the effluent, the concentration is significantly reduced. The chemical or parameters of concern in wastewater management are nitrogen and phosphorus compounds which are considered nutrients for plant growth, biochemical and chemical oxygen demand which are the measurement of organic matter in the wastewater and the amount of oxygen needed to decompose the organics (Gardner et al, 2012).…”