Abstract
As well as known contaminants, surface waters also contain an unknown variety of chemical and microbial contaminants which can pose a risk to humans if surface water is used for the production of drinking water. To protect human health proactively, and in a cost-efficient way, water authorities and drinking water companies need early warning systems. This study aimed to (1) assess the effectiveness of screening the scientific literature to direct sampling campaigns for early warning purposes, and (2) detect new aquatic contaminants of concern to public health in the Netherlands. By screening the scientific literature, six example contaminants (3 chemical and 3 microbial) were selected as potential aquatic contaminants of concern to the quality of Dutch drinking water. Stakeholders from the Dutch water sector and various information sources were consulted to identify the potential sources of these contaminants. Based on these potential contamination sources, two sampling sequences were set up from contamination sources (municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants), via surface water used for the production of drinking water to treated drinking water. The chemical contaminants, mycophenolic acid, tetrabutylphosphonium compounds and Hexafluoropropylene Oxide Trimer Acid, were detected in low concentrations and were thus not expected to pose a risk to Dutch drinking water. Colistin resistant Escherichia coli was detected for the first time in Dutch wastewater not influenced by hospital wastewater, indicating circulation of bacteria resistant to this last-resort antibiotic in the open Dutch population. Four out of six contaminants were thus detected in surface or wastewater samples, which showed that screening the scientific literature to direct sampling campaigns for both microbial and chemical contaminants is effective for early warning purposes.
Highlights
To provide all humans with clean drinking water by 2030 is our goal (UN, 2015)
For the statistical analysis of Mycophenolic acid (MPA), TBP and Hexafluoropropylene Oxide Trimer Acid (HFPO-TA) concentrations, the numerical value of the limit of detection (LOD) was used for non-detects
Four out of six analysed contaminants were detected in Dutch surface and wastewater samples, namely mycophenolic acid, tetrabutyl phosphonium compounds, HFPO-TA and colistin resistant E. coli, which showed that directing sampling campaigns based on literature mining is effective in finding unknown aquatic contaminants
Summary
To provide all humans with clean drinking water by 2030 is our goal (UN, 2015). For this, we need to effectively govern and manage the quality of our drinking water resources and focus scarce resources on aquatic contaminants that pose the greatest threat to human health when water is used for drinking water production. Surface water serves multiple functions in addition to being a drinking water resource, such as receiving industrial and municipal wastewater, being home to aquatic ecosystems and serving recreational and transportation purposes (Sullivan et al, 2005a; Sullivan et al, 2005b) These functions result in a wide variety of different chemical and microbial contaminants being present in surface water (Damania et al, 2019). Contaminants (both microbial and chemical) might be absent in the water source used for drinking water production, they may be introduced during treatment (e.g. disinfection by-products) or distribution (e.g. biofilms) (Mian et al, 2018; Liu et al, 2013) All of these aspects contribute to the complexity of effective risk governance of drinking water and its resources (Damania et al, 2019; Wuijts et al, 2018; Carvalho et al, 2019)
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