International audience | An inter-laboratory comparison exercise was organized among European laboratories, under the aegis of EU COST Action 636: "Xenobiotics in Urban Water Cycle" The objective was to evaluate the performance of testing laboratories determining "Endocrine Disrupting Compounds" (EDC) in various aqueous matrices. As the main task three steroid estrogens. 17 alpha-ethinylestradiol, 17 beta-estradiol and estrone were determined in four spiked aqueous matrices' tap water, river water and wastewater treatment plant influent and effluent using GC-MS and LC-MS/MS Results were compared and discussed according to the analytical techniques applied, the accuracy and reproducibility of the analytical methods and the nature of the sample matrices. Overall, the results obtained in this inter-laboratory exercise reveal a high level of competence among the participating laboratories for the detection of steroid estrogens in water samples indicating that GC-MS as well as LC-MS/MS can equally be employed for the analysis of natural and synthetic hormones.

peer reviewed | Contamination of land and aquatic ecosystems with heavy metals (HMs) is a global issue having the persistent potential to damage the quality of food and water. In the present study, Tagetes erecta L. plants were used to assess their potential to uptake HMs from wastewater. Plants were grown in soil for 20 days and then transplanted in hydroponic system containing Hoagland nutrient solution. After more than 15 days of growth, plants were then subjected to wastewater from tannery and surgical industries in different concentrations ranging from 25 to 100% in combination of citric acid (5 and 10 mM). After 6 weeks of treatment, plants were collected and segmented into roots, stem, and leaves for characterizing the morphological properties including plant height, roots length, fresh and dry mass of roots, stem, and leaves. For evaluation of the effect of wastewater on the plants, photosynthetic pigments; soluble proteins; reactive oxygen species (ROS); antioxidant enzymes SOD, POD, CAT, and APX; and metal accumulation were analyzed. Application of industrial wastewater revealed a significant effect on plant morphology under wastewater treatments. Overall growth and physiological attributes of plant decreased, and metal accumulation enhanced with increasing concentration of wastewater. Similarly, the production of ROS and antioxidant enzymes were also increased. Chlorophyll, protein content, and enzyme production enhanced with CA (5 and 10 mM) mediation; however, ROS production and EL were reduced. Metals analysis showed that the maximum accumulation of Pb was in roots, while Cr and Ni in the stem which further increased under CA mediation. Overall, the metal accumulation ability was in the order of Pb > Ni > Cr under CA.

Microplastics (MPs) pollution in Tangxun Lake, the largest urban lake in China, was investigated. The average MPs pollution in sediment (1.81 ± 1.75 × 10⁴ items kg⁻¹) is at a high level, while the MPs in lakeshore water (917.77 ± 742.17 items m⁻³) is in the middle to low level compared with existing studies, which is related to the government's protection. Fragments and fibers are the most common shapes in sediment and water, respectively. MPs size <1 mm dominates in the sediment, while the MPs in water has a larger size. The distribution of MPs in the inner lake shows that pellets tend to “hidden” in sediments. Suspected MPs are randomly selected for polymer detection by Micro-Raman microscopy. Polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) are the most common polymer types in water, sediment and atmospheric deposition MPs samples. The input of wastewater, fishery and surrounding human activities are the main sources of MPs in sediment. Atmospheric deposition has a great impact on the distribution of MPs, while the contribution of surface runoff to lake MPs is not remarkable. In addition, MPs in sediments have exceeded the environmental carrying capacity. More attention should be focused on the sediment, where huge amounts of MPs are “hidden”.

Although pollutants pose environmental and human health risks, the majority are not routinely monitored and regulated. Organic pollutants emanate from a variety of sources, and can be classified depending on their chemistry and environmental fate. Classification of pollutants is important because it informs fate processes and apposite removal technologies. The occurrence of emerging contaminants (ECs) in water bodies is a source of environmental and human health concern globally. Despite being widely reported, data on the occurrence of ECs in South Africa are scarce. Specifically, ECS in wastewater in the Northern Cape in South Africa are understudied. In this study, various ECs were screened in water samples collected from three wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in the province. The ECs were detected using liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution Orbitrap mass spectrometry following Oasis HLB solid-phase extraction. The main findings were: (1) there is a wide variety of ECs in the WWTPs, (2) physico-chemical properties such as pH, total dissolved solids, conductivity, and dissolved organic content showed reduced values in the outlet compared to the inlet which confirms the presence of less contaminants in the treated wastewater, (3) specific ultraviolet absorbance of less than 2 was observed in the WWTPs samples, suggesting the presence of natural organic matter (NOM) that is predominantly non-humic in nature, (4) most of the ECs were recalcitrant to the treatment processes, (5) pesticides, recreational drugs, and analgesics constitute a significant proportion of pollutants in wastewater, and (6) NOM removal ranged between 35 and 90%. Consequently, a comprehensive database of ECs in wastewater in Sol Plaatje Municipality was created. Since the detected ECs pose ecotoxicological risks, there is a need to monitor and quantify ECs in WWTPs. These data are useful in selecting suitable monitoring and control strategies at WWTPs.

This study investigates the incidence of MPs in surface sediment samples, collected from the Anzali Wetland, Gillan province, North of Iran. This natural habitat receives municipal wastewater effluents and hosts industries and recreational activities that could release plastic to the wetland. There is need for studies to understand MPs pollution in wetlands. A total of 40 superficial sediment samples were taken covering potential pollution hotspots in the wetland. The average level of MPs was 362 ± 327.6 MP/kg: the highest MPs levels were near the outlet of a highly urbanized river (Pirbazar River) (1380 MP/kg), which runs through Rasht city. This was followed by 1255 MP/kg where there was intense fishing, boating and tourism activities in the vicinity of Bandar-e Anzali city. Fibers were the most common type of MPs (80% of the total MPs detected). The MPs polluting the wetland were predominantly white/transparent (42%), and about 40% of them were >1000 μm. Polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE) prevailed in MPs found. MPs were characterized with polarized light microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy coupled with Energy-Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Microplastics levels were found to correlate significantly (p > 0.7) with electrical conductivity (EC) and sand-size fraction of the sediments. Coarse-grained sediments presented large capacity to lodge the MPs. This study can be used to establish protection policies in wetlands and newly highlights the opportunity of intercepting MPs in the Anzali Wetland, which are generally >250 μm, before they fragment further.

In recent years, Feammox has made it possible to remove NH₄⁺-N under anaerobic conditions; however, its application in practical wastewater treatment processes has not been extensively reported. In this study, an up-flow anaerobic biological filter based on limonite (Lim-UAF) was developed to facilitate long-term and stable treatment of domestic sewage. Lim-UAF achieved the highest removal efficiency of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and NH₄⁺-N at a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 24 h (Stage II). Specifically, the COD and NH₄⁺-N content decreased from 240.8 and 30.0 mg/L to about 7.5 and 0.35 mg/L, respectively. To analyze the potential nitrogen removal mechanism, the Lim-UAF was divided into three layers according to the height of the reactor. The results showed that COD and NH₄⁺-N removal had remarkable characteristics in Lim-UAF. More than 55.0% of influent COD was removed in the lower layer (0–30 cm) of Lim-UAF, while 60.2% of NH₄⁺-N was removed in the middle layer (30–60 cm). Microbial community analysis showed that the community structure in the middle and upper layers (60–90 cm) was relatively similar, but quite different from that of the lower layer. Heterotrophic bacteria were dominant in the lower layer, whereas iron-reducing and iron-oxidizing bacteria were enriched in the upper and middle layers. The formation of secondary minerals (siderite and Fe(OH)₃) indicated that the Fe(III)/Fe(II) redox cycle occurred in Lim-UAF, which was triggered by the Feammox and NDFO processes. In summary, limonite was used to develop a single-stage wastewater treatment process for simultaneously removing organic matter and NH₄⁺-N, which has excellent application prospects in domestic sewage treatment.

Biochemical oxidation and reduction are key processes in treating biological wastewater and they require the presence of electron acceptors. The functional impact of electron acceptors on microbiomes provides strategies for improving the treatment efficiency. This research focused on two of the most important electron acceptors, nitrate and oxygen. Molecule ecological network, null model, and functional prediction based on high-throughput sequencing were used to analyze the microbiomes features and assembly mechanism. The results revealed nitrate via the homogeneous selection (74.0%) decreased species diversity, while oxygen via the homogeneous selection (51.1%) and dispersal limitation (29.6%) increased the complexity of community structure. Microbes that were more strongly homogeneously selected for assembly included polyphosphate accumulating organisms (PAOs), such as Pseudomonas and variovorax in the nitrate impacted community; Pseudomonas, Candidatus_Accumulibacter, Thermomonas and Dechloromonas, in the oxygen impacted community. Nitrate simplified species interaction and increased the abundance of functional genes involving in tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA cycle), electron transfer, nitrogen metabolism, and membrane transport. These findings contribute to our knowledge of assembly process and interactions among microorganisms and lay a theoretical basis for future microbial regulation strategies in wastewater treatment.

Organic ultraviolet (UV) filters are used in personal care products, but they are also added to industrial products and are constantly released to the environment. This study analyses the occurrence of 8 widely used organic UV filters in seawater from three beaches on the Gran Canaria Island (Spain) and in three wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) by taking samples from influents and effluents. It also discusses the target compounds’ post-treatment removal efficiencies. Sampling was carried out for 6 months and analytes were extracted by solid phase extraction with Sep-pak C18 cartridges. They were determined by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry in tandem. The potential environmental hazard associated with the found concentrations was also assessed for marine organisms. Different target compounds were detected on the analysed beaches and in the wastewater. Benzophenone-3 (BP3) was the most recurrent compound in the seawater samples (frequency detection of 83%) and also in wastewater influents and effluents (measured in all the samples). However, the highest concentrations for seawater (172 μg L⁻¹) and influent wastewater (208 μg L⁻¹) corresponded to octocrylene, while methylene bis-benzotriazolyltetramethylbutylphenol was the compound most concentrated in secondary treatment effluent (34.0 μg L⁻¹) and BP3 in tertiary treatment effluent (8.07 μg L⁻¹). All the analysed samples showed that at least one target UV filter was present. Regarding the removal efficiencies of these compounds in the studied WWTPs, consistent differences between the target compounds were observed in influent concentration terms, where the average removal rates were higher than 50% for most of the compounds. Conventional treatment is unable to completely remove many studied compounds, while tertiary treatment acts as an additional elimination for some of them. An environmental hazard quotient above 1 was found for octocrylene, benzophenone-3 and 4-methylbenzylidene camphor, which indicates a potential high hazard for living species if these compounds are present.