Occurrence and removal of endocrine-disrupting chemicals in wastewater treatment plants in the Three Gorges Reservoir area, Chongqing, China

Abstract

Concentrations of six endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs), bisphenol A (BPA), estrone (E(1)), 17β-estradiol (E(2)), estriol (E(3)), 17α-ethynylestradiol (EE(2)) and diethylstilbestrol (DES), were assessed in influents, effluents and excess sludge in ten municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) area, Chongqing, China. Three types of activated sludge treatment processes, oxidation ditch (OD), reversed anaerobic-anoxic-oxic (rA(2)/O) technology and sequential batch reactor (SBR), were used in the surveyed WWTPs. These WWTPs were all combined landfill leachate-sewage treatment plants. All analytes were extracted by solid-phase extraction (SPE) in the dissolved phase and by accelerated solvent-based extraction (ASE) in sludge. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was employed for the analysis of EDCs. Among these EDCs, BPA was the most frequently detected and abundant compound (100.0-10566.7 ng L(-1), 15.5-1210.7 ng L(-1) and 85.0-2470.4 ng g(-1) with respect to the influents, effluents and excess sludge samples). The greatest levels of steroidal estrogens in municipal influents were observed in E(3) which were all >100 ng L(-1), followed by E(1) (42.2-110.7 ng L(-1)) and E(2) (7.4-32.7 ng L(-1)), and in the effluents and sludge were E(1) > E(3) > E(2) which were all <31 ng L(-1) and 105 ng g(-1), respectively. Regarding synthetic estrogens, EE(2) was frequently detected in the influents, occurring below 50 ng L(-1), while DES was not detected at all. A high correlation coefficient was observed between the leachate-sludge ratio and concentrations of influent EDCs, and it was statistically significant (i.e., R > 0.65, P < 0.05), but removal efficiency of the EDCs did not show significant differences with OD, rA(2)/O and SBR processes. Furthermore, modification of treatment technology as well as operational parameters, such as hydraulic retention time (HRT), sludge retention time (SRT) and disinfection process (DP), were recommended to further eliminate the residual EDCs.

Evaluation of the in vitro estrogenicity of emerging bisphenol analogs and their respective estrogenic contributions in municipal sewage sludge in China

“…There were no obvious geographical trends. The results coincidentally agreed with other published levels of E2 at several ng g À1 dw in sludge in China (Liu et al, 2011;Ye et al, 2012), but were about 5-20 times lower than the estrogenic activities reported for the sediments of the Haihe and Dagu Rivers, China (Song et al, 2006). The BPs accounted for 0.05-1.47% (mean 0.43%) of the EEQs in sewage sludge samples, indicating minor contributions to the total estrogenic activities.…”

Combined effects of estrogenic chemicals with the same mode of action using an estrogen receptor binding bioassay

“…However, if a variety of ligands exist simultaneously, the behavior between them and ERs may change due to their different concentrations and receptor binding abilities, both of which are critical influences on the final effects. The nine selected substances have frequently been found, by chemical analysis, at relatively high concentrations in the aquatic system of China, and all of them have been associated with endocrine disrupting effects (Gong et al, 2012;Lei et al, 2009;Liu et al, 2012;Lu et al, 2010;Sun et al, 2008;Wang et al, 2012;Yan et al, 2012;Ye et al, 2012). Thus, we chose them as representative estrogen-like chemicals that are present in the water environment.…”

Identification of priority organic compounds in groundwater recharge of China

“…Studies were selected in the Web of Knowledge using "China", "effluent * OR wastewater * OR reclaimed water *" and "occurrence * OR determination * OR detection *"as the topics. Studies which failed to provide specific values were not taken into account and 27 documents (Cao et al, 2005;Kloepfer et al, 2005;Peng et al, 2006;Chang et al, 2007;Zeng et al, 2007;Xiao et al, 2008;Li et al, 2009;Duong et al, 2010;Huang et al, 2010;Lv et al, 2010;Ma and Shih, 2010;Zhao et al, 2010a,b;Zhou et al, 2010;Chang et al, 2011;Chen et al, 2011;Li and Zhang, 2011;Liu et al, 2011;Sui et al, 2011;Sun et al, 2011;Tong et al, 2011;Yang et al, 2011;Zhang et al, 2011a,b;Gao et al, 2012;Ye et al, 2012;Zhou et al, 2012;Yuan et al, 2013) were selected for reference. If an OC, such as E1, was reported in several studies, the average concentration was calculated.…”