EU Wide Monitoring Survey on Waste Water Treatment Plant Effluents

In the year 2010, effluents from 90 European waste water treatment plants (WWTPs) were collected and analysed in total for 160 organic chemicals and 20 inorganic trace elements. The analyses were complemented by applying also effect-based monitoring approaches aiming at estrogenicity and dioxin-like toxicity analysed by in vitro reporter gene bioassays, and yeast and diatom culture acute toxicity optical bioassays. The analytical work was performed in six European expert laboratories. This European-wide monitoring study on the occurrence of micropollutants in WWTP effluents represents the largest EU wide monitoring survey on WWTP effluents ever performed. It produced a comprehensive data set on many so far only locally investigated “emerging” compound classes including pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs), veterinary (antibiotic) drugs, perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), organophosphate ester flame retardants, pesticides (and some metabolites) or industrial chemicals such as benzotriazoles (corrosion inhibitors), polycyclic musk fragrances, x-ray contrast agents, Gadolinium compounds, and siloxanes. The obtained results show the presence of 131 target organic compounds in European wastewater effluents, in concentrations ranging from low nanograms to milligrams per liter. These results obtained from 90 different European WWTPs allow the calculation of a European median level for the chemicals investigated. The most relevant compounds identified in the effluent water samples in terms of frecquency of detection, maximum, average and median concentration levels were Sucralose, Acesulfame K (artificial sweeteners), PFOA, PFHxA, PFHpA, PFOS (perfluoroalkyl substances), N,N’-Diethyltoluamide (DEET; insect repellent), Benzotriazoles (corrosion inhibitors), the pharmaceuticals Bisoprolol, Carbamazepine, Ciprofloxacine, Citaprolam, Clindamycine, Codeine, Diltiazem, Diphenhydramin, Eprosartan, Fexofenadine, Flecainide, Gemfibrozil, Fluconazole, Haloperidol, Ibersartan, Ibuprofen, Ketoprofen, Oxazepam, ...