Abstract
Pharmaceuticals were screened in the estuarine Garonne River to investigate the role of estuaries as passive or active transfer compartments in the removal of these compounds. Monthly monitoring of 53 pharmaceuticals from various therapeutic classes at 6 sampling points over 18months showed that most compounds were frequently detected with median concentrations in the low ngL−1 range. Saline intrusion was responsible of an overall dilution but an enrichment from the treated urban effluents of Bordeaux city was also observed with increases resulting from this input being compound dependent. An average cumulated load of 10kg of the monitored pharmaceuticals was found to enter the estuary daily from the catchment area. After normalization to the persistent marker carbamazepine, a large majority of the compounds were found to exhibit in-stream attenuation during summer while this removal was enhanced farther down the estuary, indicating a likely effect of residence time, temperature and suspended solid concentration on the stability of the pharmaceuticals.
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