Sewage Treatment Plant Influent Research Articles

Biodegradability of the anti-tumour agent ifosfamide and its occurrence in hospital effluents and communal sewage

A portion of administered pharmaceuticals are excreted unmetabolised by patients and can be found in hospital effluent and municipal sewage. Some pharmaceuticals such as anti-tumour agents are carcinogenic, mutagenic, teratogenic and fetotoxic. Little is known about their environmental impact. Therefore, the biodegradability of the widely used anti-tumour agent ifosfamide (IF) was assessed with the modified Zahn-Wellens test (OECD 302 B) and a test simulating biological sewage treatment. The biodegradation was monitored by DOC and GC MS . The concentration of IF in hospital effluent, communal sewage and the effluent from a communal sewage treatment plant (STP) was analysed as well as calculated by the amounts of water and IF used in hospitals. The expected concentration of IF in German surface waters was calculated. IF was not biodegradable in the Zahn-Wellens test and the STP simulation test. It was not adsorbed by the sewage sludge. The concentrations measured in the hospital effluents, the STP influent and the STP effluent were of the same order of magnitude as the calculated ones, indicating that no adsorption, biodegradation or other elimination of IF took place to any noticeable extent.

Occurrence of Organotin Compounds in the Canadian Aquatic Environment Five Years after the Regulation of Antifouling Uses of Tributyltin

Abstract A survey was conducted of water and sediment from across Canada in 1993-94 to assess the effectiveness of the 1989 regulation of antifouling uses of tributyltin (TBT) under the Canadian Pest Control Products Act. The survey was also designed to assess concentrations of 13 other organotin species in water and sediment, and in sewage treatment plant influents, effluents and sludges. The main conclusion is that the 1989 regulation has only been partially effective. It has had some effect in the reduction of TBT concentrations in fresh water, but not in sea water. It has had less effect in the reduction of TBT concentrations in sediment, probably because of the longer persistence of TBT in sediment than in water. In many locations the TBT concentration was high enough to cause acute and chronic toxicity to aquatic and benthic organisms. In some areas there may be potential for recycling TBT from contaminated sediments back into the water column. In addition, it appears that large harbours that handle ships legally painted with TBT-containing antifouling paints continued to experience ecotoxicologically significant TBT contamination. Other organotin species found appear to pose no acute or chronic hazards to fresh water or marine organisms, but nothing is known of their hazards to benthic organisms. The presence of monooctyltin and dioctyltin in sediments and sewage treatment plant influents, effluents and sludges is reported for the first time, and tripropyltin is quantified in sediments for the first time.

Quantitation of alcohol ethoxylate surfactants in environmental samples by electrospray mass spectrometry

AbstractThis report describes a method for obtaining the concentrations of the total and individual alcohol ethoxylate (AE) species in sewage treatment plant (STP) effluents by using electrospray liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS). This is a more advantageous method for quantitative analysis of AE in environmental matrices as compared with a previous thermospray LC/MS method. This new method is more sensitive, uses less solvents, utilizes a deuterated internal standard blend [C13D27O(CH2CH2O)nH, where n varies from 0 to 21 with an average of n=9], which corresponds more closely to the AE, and it is a more robust instrumental technique. In this report, we document the results for validation of the electrospray LC/MS method by spike recovery of AE from STP effluent and influent samples.

High-performance liquid chromatographic-fluorescence determination of aliphatic alcohol polyethoxylates and polye(thylene glycol)s in aqueous samples

New derivatization and separation procedures for the routine determination of detergent alcohol polyethoxylates (AEs) and poly(ethylene glycol)s (PEGs) in aqueous environmental and biodegradation screening test samples are proposed. The AE derivatives were separated both homolog-by-homolog or ethoxymer-by-ethoxymer by reversed-phase HPLC-fluorescence (RP-HPLC-FL) after derivatization with naphthyl isocyanate (NIC) and naphthoyl chloride (NC), respectively. The ethoxymer-by-ethoxymer separation of PEGs was obtained by RP-HPLC-FL after derivatization with NC. The fluorescence response of the various AE homologs and AE, PEG ethoxymers were evaluated. AE, PEG as well as nonylphenol polyethoxylates were cumulatively extracted from biodegradation test liquors and sewage-treatment plant influent and final effluent samples by solid-phase extraction on graphitized carbon black (GCB), and then derivatized and analyzed by RP-HPLC-FL. The recovery was systematically >90%, with relative standard deviations of 3–6%, for all compounds considered. The proposed derivatization, separation and detection procedures showed a sensitivity of 5–10 ng of injected AE or PEG derivatives leading to a S/ N ratio of 10.

Trace Analysis of Ethoxylated Nonionic Surfactants in Samples of Influent and Effluent of Sewage Treatment Plants by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography

ADVERTISEMENT RETURN TO ISSUEPREVArticleNEXTTrace Analysis of Ethoxylated Nonionic Surfactants in Samples of Influent and Effluent of Sewage Treatment Plants by High-Performance Liquid ChromatographyAnton T. Kiewiet, Jan M. D. van der Steen, and John R. ParsonsCite this: Anal. Chem. 1995, 67, 23, 4409–4415Publication Date (Print):December 1, 1995Publication History Published online1 May 2002Published inissue 1 December 1995https://doi.org/10.1021/ac00119a033RIGHTS & PERMISSIONSArticle Views283Altmetric-Citations43LEARN ABOUT THESE METRICSArticle Views are the COUNTER-compliant sum of full text article downloads since November 2008 (both PDF and HTML) across all institutions and individuals. These metrics are regularly updated to reflect usage leading up to the last few days.Citations are the number of other articles citing this article, calculated by Crossref and updated daily. Find more information about Crossref citation counts.The Altmetric Attention Score is a quantitative measure of the attention that a research article has received online. Clicking on the donut icon will load a page at altmetric.com with additional details about the score and the social media presence for the given article. Find more information on the Altmetric Attention Score and how the score is calculated. Share Add toView InAdd Full Text with ReferenceAdd Description ExportRISCitationCitation and abstractCitation and referencesMore Options Share onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InReddit PDF (762 KB) Get e-Alerts Get e-Alerts

Some solutions to on-line radiological monitoring of difficult streams

On-line monitoring for radiological contamination of dirty, but normally not radioactive, streams is considered to be difficult. Several low-fouling units are described that are intended to replace the existing sensors that monitor both beta and gamma activity. A sensor was designed, using a thin-wall Geiger-Muller tube for beta and gamma sensitivity, to monitor the influent of the sanitary sewage treatment plant. The design eliminates dead volumes inherent in the old unit by use of a double-layer, helically wound solenoid made of 5/16-in-OD thin-wall (0.02-in) Teflon tubing. A 4-L Marinelli breaker-based system that used a 3*3 NaI(Tl) scintillator was replaced with a multilayer solenoid of 5/8-in-OD Teflon. Two units for the detection of beta radiation are also described. >

Detection of Industrial Pollutants and Toxic Chemical Wastes in Sewage Treatment Plant Influents by Use of a Biological Monitor

Heterogeneous mixtures of toxic chemical wastes affecting the normal operations of a sewage treatment facility employing anaerobic digestion were detected by dark-field observation of uncoordinate flagellar orientation patterns displayed by cells of Spirillum volutans. These results were compared with plant parameters determined by gas production, volatile fatty acids, and alkalinity measurements.

Concentrations of nitrilotriacetate and certain metals in Canadian wastewaters and streams: 1971–1975

At 13 Ontario cities, representing a variety of populations and sewage treatment processes, grab samples were taken from the sewage treatment plant influent and effluent and from the receiving stream above and below the sewage outfall. The samples, taken once each month from November 1971 to March 1975 were analyzed for nitrilotriacetate (NTA), 9 metals, and phosphorus. From April 1971 to January 1973 household detergents in Canada contained an average of 6% NTA; after March 1973 they contained 15%. This increased usage of NTA was reflected in the NTA content of sewage influents, which rose from a median level of 1.3 mg l −1 before the change to 3.2 mg l −1 after the change. NTA levels in sewage effluent also increased somewhat, but much of the NTA disappeared in the sewage treatment processes. Even with the increased usage of NTA, the receiving streams below the sewage outfall contained only low levels of NTA: 97% of all samples during this period contained less than 0.5 mg l −1, and the median concentration was 0.05 mg l −1. Phosphorus concentrations in the sewages decreased at the time detergent compositions changed. Comparison of metal concentrations before and after the change, as well as metal-NTA correlation coefficients, failed to show clear evidence of an association between NTA concentration and metal concentration.