Ecotoxicological effects of micropollutant-loaded powdered activated carbon emitted from wastewater treatment plants on Daphnia magna

Abstract

In order to eliminate micropollutants from wastewater, the use of powdered activated carbon (PAC) is a suitable and common technique. Many studies already proved the successful elimination of micropollutants from wastewater using PAC. However, it still remains a challenge to completely retain the applied PAC within the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) without considerable emission of PAC into receiving waters. The present study investigates possible toxic effects of micropollutant-loaded PAC from a WWTP in acute and chronic tests with the aquatic organism Daphnia magna. Furthermore, the well-studied micropollutant diclofenac as well as unloaded, native PAC and experimentally diclofenac-loaded PAC were tested. The acute tests resulted in median effect concentrations (EC50) after 48 h of 53 mg/L for diclofenac, 217 mg/L for native PAC and 414 mg/L for diclofenac-loaded PAC. No effects were detected for the loaded PAC from the WWTP although D. magna ingested the PAC. The chronic tests revealed that diclofenac had effects on growth, reproduction and mortality (median lethal concentration 17.0 mg/L). Exposure to native and diclofenac-loaded PAC showed clear effects on growth and a reproduction inhibition of 80% in the highest tested concentrations. The calculated reproduction EC10 values were 0.8 mg/L for native PAC and 0.3 mg/L for diclofenac-loaded PAC. For the loaded PAC from the WWTP, no effects were observed on reproduction, growth and mortality during the 21-day exposure albeit the fact that the animals ingested the PAC into their gastrointestinal system. Based on these findings PAC from WWTP can be considered as not harmful to D. magna even if complete retention of the PAC at the WWTP cannot be guaranteed.