Pharmaceutical and personal care product residues in a macrophyte pond-constructed wetland treating wastewater from a university campus: Presence, removal and ecological risk assessment

• Published in: The Science of the total environment Vol. 703; p. 135596
• Main Authors: Guedes-Alonso, Rayco, Montesdeoca-Esponda, Sarah, Herrera-Melián, José A., Rodríguez-Rodríguez, Raquel, Ojeda-González, Zeneida, Landívar-Andrade, Vanessa, Sosa-Ferrera, Zoraida, Santana-Rodríguez, José J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 10.02.2020
• Subjects: Constructed wetland; Cosmetics - analysis; Ecological risk; Environmental Monitoring; Hormones; Pharmaceutical Preparations - analysis; Pond; Universities; UV stabilizers; Waste Disposal, Fluid - methods; Waste Water - chemistry; Wastewater; Water Pollutants, Chemical - analysis; Wetlands; Ecological risk; UV stabilizers; Pond; Hormones; Wastewater; Constructed wetland
• ISSN: 0048-9697; 1879-1026
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.135596

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) constitute a group of chemicals of concern because of their potential toxicity when reaching aquatic environments. Wastewaters are one of the main pathways of introduction into the environment of the chemical compounds used in PPCPs because, in most cases, wastewater treatment facilities are not 100% efficient in their removal. This problem is accentuated in rural zones and isolated communities where conventional treatment systems are too expensive to build and operate. Waste-stabilization ponds and constructed wetlands (CWs) are natural wastewater treatment systems which are used to improve the quality of sewage from small communities because of their low cost and easy maintenance. There is growing interest in combining the two technologies to make a more robust system, taking into account their respective strengths and weaknesses. In this work, a combined macrophyte pond-CW system was evaluated for the presence at three sampling points (influent, pond effluent and CW effluent) of fifteen steroid hormones and six benzotriazole ultraviolet stabilizers (BUVSs). None of the targeted BUVS compounds were detected in either the influent or effluent, probably because of the particular characteristics of the population served by the wastewater system. In contrast, eight different steroid hormone compounds were detected at concentrations ranging from 17.3 to 247.7 ng·L−1 in influent samples and from 8.1 to 22.1 ng·L−1 in final effluent samples. The pond-CW system showed high elimination rates of steroid hormone residues with average removal efficiencies of over 77%. This efficacy was confirmed in the ecological risk assessment evaluation that was performed. Final effluents showed a low ecological risk associated with steroid hormones in contrast to the medium-high ecological risks found in the influent samples. [Display omitted] •Macrophyte pond – constructed wetland system treats University campus wastewater.•15 steroid hormones and 6 UV filters were monitored during 4 months.•8 hormones were detected and the average removal efficiencies were over 76%.•The system produces a decrease in the ecological risk related to steroid hormones.