Occurrence of persistent and mobile chemicals and other contaminants of emerging concern in Spanish and Portuguese wastewater treatment plants, transnational river basins and coastal water

• Published in: The Science of the total environment 2023-08, Vol.885, p.163737-163737, Article 163737
• Main Authors: Montes, Rosa, Méndez, Sandra, Cobas, Julio, Carro, Nieves, Neuparth, Teresa, Alves, Nelson, Santos, Miguel M., Quintana, José Benito, Rodil, Rosario
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Caffeine; Environmental Monitoring - methods; Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS); Persistent and mobile organic compounds (PMOCs); Pollutants; Portugal; Removal efficiency; Risk assessment; Rivers - chemistry; Waste Disposal, Fluid; Water Pollutants, Chemical - analysis; Water Purification; Water quality
• ISSN: 0048-9697; 1879-1026
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163737

This work investigated, during one year, the occurrence and fate of 52 contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) in transnational river basins and coastal areas of the North of Portugal and Galicia (NW Spain) and the wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) discharging on these environments. The different CECs investigated included pharmaceuticals, personal care products, industrial chemicals, among others, of which ca. 90 % would fulfill the persistence, mobility and toxicity criteria proposed by the German Environmental Agency. The results showed the ubiquitous presence of these CECs and an incomplete removal of over 60 % of them with current conventional WWTPs. These findings highlight the requirement of a prominent and coordinated upgrade of WWTP treatments in order to meet the future European Union regulations on urban wastewater treatment and surface water quality. In fact, even some compounds exhibiting high removals, such as caffeine or xylene sulfonate, were frequently detected in river and estuarine waters at the high ng L−1 level. Thus, our preliminary risk assessment study concluded that 18 of the CECs presented a potential risk for the environment, being caffeine, sulpiride, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), diclofenac, fipronil and perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA) the most concerning ones. Yet, additional toxicity data as well as a more robust information on persistence and mobility of CECs are necessary for better estimating the magnitude of the problem and improve risk assessment. As an example, in the case of the antidiabetic metformin, recent research has revealed toxicity for model fish species at concentration levels below those found in 40 % of the river water samples analyzed in this work. [Display omitted] •52 CECs and PMT/vPvM chemicals investigated into WWTPs and fresh and coastal water.•Poor WWTPs removal of some CECs lead to high concentrations in the receiving media.•PFOA, diclofenac, fipronil or metformin pose risk for aquatic organisms.•Further experimental ecotoxicological data are necessary.•Future research on PMT chemicals properties and behavior in WWTPs still required.