Abstract
Abstract. Waters released from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) represent a relevant source of pharmaceuticals and personal care products to the aquatic environment, since many of them are not effectively removed by the treatment systems. The consumption of these products increased in the last decades and concerns have consequently risen about their possible adverse effects on the freshwater ecosystem. In this study, we present a simple, yet effective, analytical model of transport of contaminants released in surface waters by WWTPs. Transport of dissolved species is modeled by solving the advection dispersion reaction equation (ADRE) along the river network by using a Lagrangian approach. We applied this model to concentration data of five pharmaceuticals, diclofenac, ketoprofen, clarithromycin, sulfamethoxazole, and irbesartan, collected during two field campaigns, conducted in February and July 2015 in the Adige River, northeastern Italy. The model showed a good agreement with measurements and the successive application at the monthly timescale highlighted significant variations of the load due to the interplay between streamflow seasonality and variation of the anthropogenic pressure, chiefly due to the variability of touristic fluxes. Since the data required by the model are widely available, our model is suitable for large-scale applications.
Highlights
The presence of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in the environment raises growing concerns because of their potential harmful effects on humans and freshwater ecosystems (Ebele et al, 2017)
We present a simple, yet effective, analytical model of transport of contaminants released in surface waters by wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs)
The main entry route of PPCPs into the aquatic environment is through the water discharged by wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), whose removal efficiency varies in dependence on the type of contaminant and the treatment technology (Halling-Sørensen et al, 1998; Rivera-Utrilla et al, 2013; Petrovic et al, 2016)
Summary
The presence of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in the environment raises growing concerns because of their potential harmful effects on humans and freshwater ecosystems (Ebele et al, 2017). Specific modeling approaches have been proposed with the objective of evaluating the propagation of PPCPs in rivers (see, e.g., Scheytt et al, 2006; Osorio et al, 2012; Vione et al, 2018), all sharing the conceptual framework of GREAT-ER (Geography-Referenced Regional Exposure Assessment Tool for European Rivers) (Feijtel et al, 1997) and PhATE (Pharmaceutical Assessment and Transport Evaluation) (Anderson et al, 2004) Both are GIS-based models and take into account the decay of the species along the river in a simplified manner by considering a representative water discharge and neglecting changes of dilution due to its variability in time. To PhATE, and consistently with the hypothesis of stationary release, a single water discharge representative of low-flow conditions is considered to obtain concentrations from the estimated mass flux.
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