Impact of ozonation on ecotoxicity and endocrine activity of tertiary treated wastewater effluent

• Published in: Water research (Oxford) 2012-07, Vol.46 (11), p.3693-3702
• Main Authors: Altmann, Dominik, Schaar, Heidemarie, Bartel, Cordula, Schorkopf, Dirk Louis P., Miller, Ingrid, Kreuzinger, Norbert, Möstl, Erich, Grillitsch, Britta
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Androgens - analysis; Animals; Applied sciences; Aquatic ecotoxicity; Assaying; Chlorophyta - drug effects; Ecotoxicology - methods; Effluents; Endocrine disruption; Endocrine Disruptors - analysis; Endocrine Disruptors - toxicity; Endocrine System - drug effects; Enzyme immunoassay; Enzymes; Estrogens - analysis; Exact sciences and technology; Female; Fish; Freshwater; Immunoenzyme Techniques; Male; Microorganisms; Micropollutants; Oryzias; Ovary - drug effects; Ovum - drug effects; Ozonation; Ozone; Pollution; Reproduction - drug effects; Screening; Testis - drug effects; Testosterone - metabolism; Vitellogenins - analysis; Vitellogenins - metabolism; Waste Disposal, Fluid - methods; Waste water; Wastewater treatment; Wastewater treatment plant effluent; Water Pollutants, Chemical - toxicity; Water treatment and pollution; Zebrafish
• ISSN: 0043-1354; 1879-2448
• DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2012.04.017

Tertiary wastewater treatment plant effluent before and after ozonation (0.6–1.1gO3/g DOC) was tested for aquatic ecotoxicity in a battery of standardised microbioassays with green algae, daphnids, and zebrafish eggs. In addition, unconjugated estrogen and 17β-hydroxyandrogen immunoreactive substances were quantified by means of enzyme immunoassays, and endocrine effects were analysed in a 21-day fish screening assay with adult male and female medaka (Oryzias latipes). Ozonation decreased estrogen-immunoreactivity by 97.7±1.2% and, to a lesser extent, androgen-immunoreactivity by 56.3±16.5%. None of the short-term exposure ecotoxicity tests revealed any adverse effects of the tertiary effluent, neither before nor after the ozonation step. Similarly in the fish screening assay, reproductive fitness parameters showed no effects attributed to micropollutants, and no detrimental effects of the effluents were observed. Based on the presented screening, ozonation effectively reduced steroid hormone levels in the wastewater treatment plant effluent without increasing the effluent's ecotoxicity. [Display omitted] ► Ecotoxicological screening of ozonation as an effluent treatment step. ► Ozonation significantly decreased estrogen and testosterone binding activity of effluent in enzyme immunoassays. ► No decrease in reproductive fitness of fish in a 21-day screening assay of effluent before and after ozonation. ► No detrimental effects of effluent in aquatic ecotoxicity microbioassays and the fish screening assay before and after ozonation.