Possible Factors Influencing the Accumulation of Different Radionuclides in Sludge from a Drinking Water Treatment Plant Located in Southern Catalonia Between 2002 and 2018
2020
Peñalver, A. | Baciu, T. | Borrull, F. | Aguilar, C.
The drinking water treatment plant (DWTP) in L’Ampolla collects water from the River Ebro. The sludge generated during the water treatment processes applied accumulates some of the radionuclides present in the ingoing water. Gamma spectrometry measurements of the sludge were carried out monthly for a period of 17 years (2002–2018) to evaluate possible factors that might influence the radioactive content. These included the geology, river flow rate, suspended particulate matter, turbidity, water treatment processes, and industrial activities in the area of the river basin. The activity concentrations of ²¹⁴Pb, ²¹⁴Bi, ²²⁸Ac, ²²⁸Ra, and ²²⁶Ra from both the ²³⁸U and ²³²Th decay chains decreased significantly from 2012 onwards. This may be related to a change in the water treatment process in the L’Ampolla DWTP, and in particular, that potassium permanganate was no longer added to the raw water from 2011. Other isotopes such as ⁴⁰K, ⁷Be, and ²³⁴U/²³⁸U have not displayed the same behavior, which could support our hypothesis that the accumulation of radium isotopes in the sludge could be influenced by the use and nonuse of permanganate. A number of artificial radionuclides were also determined, which is consistent since L’Ampolla DWTP is located 70 km from a nuclear power plant, and the activities found for some of these radionuclides correlate with its annual liquid discharges into the river. The results therefore indicate that a relationship exists between the different factors in connection with the raw water and the radioactive content of the sludge generated by the plant under study.
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