Impacts of Urban Wastewater Treatment on Aquatic Micropollutant Emissions in Europe

Abstract

Micropollutants (MPs) in wastewater pose a growing concern for their potential adverse effects on the receiving aquatic environment, and some countries have started requiring that wastewater treatment plants remove them to a certain extent. Advanced treatment is expected to yield a significant reduction in the toxicity of effluents. Here we quantify the reduction of effluent toxicity potentially achieved by implementing advanced treatment in a selection of the European wastewater treatment plants. To this end, we refer to a list of “total pollution proxy substances” (TPPS) composed of 1,337 relevant chemicals commonly found in wastewater effluents. We consider these substances as an approximation of the “chemical universe” impinging on the European wastewater system. We evaluate the fate of the TPPS in conventional and advanced treatment plants using a compilation of experimental physicochemical properties that describe their sorption, volatilization and biodegradation during activated sludge treatment as well as removal efficiency in ozonation and activated carbon treatment processes, while filling the gaps through in silico prediction models.

Keywords: Advanced wastewater treatment, toxicity indicators