Safe Drinking Water? Effect of Wastewater Inputs and Source Water Impairment and Implications for Water Reuse

Abstract

The elimination of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) during conventional wastewater treatment is not complete, and therefore, different amounts of these compounds are continuously released via wastewater effluents into the aquatic environment. This constitutes a major issue for water reuse, because these compounds can undergo transformation in the environment or during disinfection if reclaimed water is used for drinking water production. Different emerging contaminants, e.g., perfluorinated compounds, pharmaceuticals, antibacterials, plasticizers, and preservatives, and transformation products, which are in some cases more toxic than original compounds, have been occasionally found in finished drinking waters. The present chapter reviews the CECs detected in drinking water and the disinfection by-products generated by different CECs present in the aquatic environment. Moreover, the potential toxicologic effects that these pollutants and their transformation products pose for human health are also reviewed. Levels of these compounds in treated waters, and therefore exposure, could be reduced by the use of advanced removal technologies.

Investigating the endocrine disruption effects of four disinfection byproducts on zebrafish estrogen receptor-α

“…However, there are few reports of endocrine disruption by iodinated DHM (CIM in this study) in both human and animal studies because DHMs are not routinely detected in environments (Supplementary Figure 1). CIM may be as toxicologically relevant as regulated THMs and HAAs (Linge et al, 2013;Richardson and Postigo, 2015;Padhi et al, 2019). This study also found that CIM exposure resulted in the most substantial estrogenic inhibition in zERa.…”

A proof of concept study for wastewater reuse using bioelectrochemical processes combined with complementary post-treatment technologies

“…Alternatively, domestic wastewater properly treated could be recharged to suitable aquifers for subsequent recovery (indirect reuse) after holding the water for a time. 2 Such managed aquifer recharge is a natural water treatment process by which pollutants are removed by taking surface water or well-treated domestic wastewater into an aquifer for a long time and recovering it as drinking water or for irrigation purposes via a production well. This technique is considered to be environmentally friendly and costeffective, but there are trace organic compounds (TOrCs) that are incompletely removed or not removed in the aquifer.…”