Review on the Hydrocarbon Fate Within Combined Sewers: Case of the “Le Marais” Urban Catchment (1994–2005)

Abstract

An experimental catchment area was set up by the CEREVE (Water, City, Environment and Education Research Centre) in the center of Paris, in order to obtain an accurate description of the urban pollutants within combined sewers. Several investigations were carried out between 1994 and 2005 in order to evaluate the aliphatic and polycyclic 123 124 J. Gasperi et al.aromatic hydrocarbon loads entering combined sewers, as well as the pollutant fluxes conveyed by dry and wet weather flows at catchment outlets. Until now, such results have only been considered independently but neither a comparison between imported and exported hydrocarbon loads nor an assessment of the contributions of different sources (e.g., runoff, dry weather flow and deposit re-suspension within the sewer) to wet weather pollutant loads, have been established. This paper is designed to address these points. The assessment of hydrocarbon loads during dry weather periods underlined a predominant contribution of domestic inputs to the hydrocarbon loads. During wet weather periods, the evaluation of hydrocarbon loads revealed the important role played by in-sewer sediment erosion as a source of wet weather hydrocarbon loads, which contribution ranged from 48 to 55% of the exported loads.

Occurrence and removal of priority pollutants by lamella clarification and biofiltration

“…Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), a number of pesticides (diuron and, to a lesser extent, chlorpyrifos, isoproturon, metaldehyde and atrazine) and tributyl tin (TBT) have been observed. These substances are frequently detected in wastewater, as previously cited by Gasperi et al (2007 and2008a) for Paris wastewater or by Thomaidis et al (2006) for TBT in Greek wastewater. Of the 14 pesticides investigated, only diuron was actually detected in all samples, with concentrations ranging from 0.03 to 0.16 µg.l -1 .…”

Settling velocity of particulate pollutants from combined sewer wet weather discharges

“…Here once again, the samples cover a diverse range of concentrations, corresponding with the range identified during the OPUR2 research program in wet weather effluent (Gasperi, 2006;Gasperi et al 2007). …”

Distribution of 16 EPA-priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in sludges collected from nine Tunisian wastewater treatment plants

“…[19]. In terms of possible PAH sources in sludge, a recent study revealed that domestic inputs provide the major contribution to PAH load [20]. Other research studies reported that lower molecular weight PAHs typically Naph, Ace, fl, Phen, F and Py were present in household wastewater and light industrial estate [21,22].…”