The elimination of selected pharmaceuticals (bezafibrate, clofibric acid, carbamazepine, diclofenac) during drinking water treatment processes was investigated at lab and pilot scale and in real waterworks. No significant removal of pharmaceuticals was observed in batch experiments with sand under natural aerobic and anoxic conditions, thus indicating low sorption properties and high persistence with nonadapted microorganisms. These results were underscored by the presence of carbamazepine in bank-filtrated water with anaerobic conditions in a waterworks area. Flocculation using iron(III) chloride in lab-scale experiments (Jar test) and investigations in waterworks exhibited no significant elimination of the selected target pharmaceuticals. However, ozonation was in some cases very effective in eliminating these polar compounds. In lab-scale experiments, 0.5 mg/L ozone was shown to reduce the concentrations of diclofenac and carbamazepine by more than 90%, while bezafibrate was eliminated by 50% with a 1.5 mg/L ozone dose. Clofibric acid was stable even at 3 mg/L ozone. Under waterworks conditions, similar removal efficiencies were observed. In addition to ozonation, filtration with granular activated carbon (GAC) was very effective in removing pharmaceuticals. Except for clofibric acid, GAC in pilot-scale experiments and waterworks provided a major elimination of the pharmaceuticals under investigation.

It has long been recognized that the formation of soluble arsenic sulfur complexes plays a key role for the mobility and toxicity of arsenic in sulfate-reducing environments. Knowledge of the exact arsenic species is essential to understand the behavior of arsenic in sulfidic aquifers and to develop remediation strategies. In the past, monomeric and trimeric thioarsenites were assumed to be the existing species in sulfidic systems. In this study, thioarsenates were identified by IC-ICP/MS in arsenite- and sulfide-containing solutions as well as in a reduced groundwater from a contaminated site. The unexpected finding of an oxidation of As(lll) to As(V) in thioarsenates in strongly reducing systems can be explained by the high affinity between As(Ill) and sulfur. In sulfide-containing solutions without oxidant, As(lll) therefore undergoes disproportionation to thioarsenates (As(V)) and elemental arsenic. It has previously been supposed that mobility as well as toxicity of arsenic increases if the redox state decreases. For sulfidic waters, the opposite is probably the case. Thus, the formation of thioarsenates could be used in connection with remediation strategies. Thioarsenates are highly sensitive to oxygen and pH. This is important for analytical procedures. A loss of soluble arsenic as well as a conversion to arsenite and arsenate may occur if water samples containing thioarsenates are analyzed with conventional methods.

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