| Title | Integrated Exposure and Algal Ecotoxicological Assessments of Effluents from Secondary and Advanced-Tertiary Wastewater-Treatment Plants |
| Abstract | The great concern over the environmental impact of wastewaters has led to the designing of advanced treatment processes to upgrade conventional treatment plants and achieve a significant reduction of contaminants in receiving waters. In the present study we combined chemical and ecotoxicological analyses, aiming to evaluate the reduction of toxicity effects associated with the removal of micropollutants and to define the contribution of the detected compounds to the overall toxicity of the mixtures in a series of wastewater effluents collected from a secondary treatment (OUT 2) and from a tertiary activated carbon treatment (OUT 3) plant. The target compounds were selected after a screening procedure among pharmaceuticals, musk fragrances, and trace metals. The classical algal growth inhibition test was conducted on the original effluent samples and on different fractions obtained by solid-phase extraction (SPE) treatment. A good accordance was found between the removal of toxicity (30%-80%) and organic compounds (70%-80%) after the tertiary treatment, suggesting its high efficiency to improve the wastewater quality. The discrepancy between the contribution to the overall toxicity of the nonadsorbable compounds (i.e., inorganic or very polar organic compounds) as experimentally measured by the SPE bioassays (18%-76%) and calculated by the concentration addition approach (>97%) could be mitigated by including the bioavailability correction in metal-toxicity modeling of wastewater mixtures. For the organic compounds, the toxic equivalency method enabled us to quantify the portion of toxicity explained by the detected chemicals in both OUT 2 (82%-104%) and OUT 3 (5%-57%), validating the selection of the target molecules. The applied integrating approach could be implemented by the inclusion of both additional target chemicals and toxicity endpoints. |
| Source | Environmental toxicology and chemistry, pp. 2404–2419 |
| Keywords | ecotoxicologywastewaterpollution |
| Journal | Environmental toxicology and chemistry |
| Editor | Pergamon,, New York, Stati Uniti d'America |
| Year | 2022 |
| Type | Articolo in rivista |
| DOI | 10.1002/etc.5424 |
| Authors | Maria Teresa Palumbo, Simona Russo, Stefano Polesello, Licia Guzzella, Claudio Roscioli, Laura Marziali, Lucia Valsecchi, Francesca Cappelli, Simona Pascariello, Stefano Tasselli, Sara Villa, Massimo Peruzzo, Stefano Culatina, Giovanni Bellotti, Andrea Turolla, Manuela Antonelli, Francesca Malpei, Sara Valsecchi |
| Text | 488583 2022 10.1002/etc.5424 ecotoxicology wastewater pollution Integrated Exposure and Algal Ecotoxicological Assessments of Effluents from Secondary and Advanced Tertiary Wastewater Treatment Plants Maria Teresa Palumbo, Simona Russo, Stefano Polesello, Licia Guzzella, Claudio Roscioli, Laura Marziali, Lucia Valsecchi, Francesca Cappelli, Simona Pascariello, Stefano Tasselli, Sara Villa, Massimo Peruzzo, Stefano Culatina, Giovanni Bellotti, Andrea Turolla, Manuela Antonelli, Francesca Malpei, Sara Valsecchi Water Research Institute National Research Council IRSA CNR , Brugherio, Italy Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Milano Bicocca, Milan, Italy Department of Science and High Technology, University of Insubria, Como, Italy Eurolab, Cassola, Ital eVeolia Water Technologies Italia, Milan, Ital Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy The great concern over the environmental impact of wastewaters has led to the designing of advanced treatment processes to upgrade conventional treatment plants and achieve a significant reduction of contaminants in receiving waters. In the present study we combined chemical and ecotoxicological analyses, aiming to evaluate the reduction of toxicity effects associated with the removal of micropollutants and to define the contribution of the detected compounds to the overall toxicity of the mixtures in a series of wastewater effluents collected from a secondary treatment OUT 2 and from a tertiary activated carbon treatment OUT 3 plant. The target compounds were selected after a screening procedure among pharmaceuticals, musk fragrances, and trace metals. The classical algal growth inhibition test was conducted on the original effluent samples and on different fractions obtained by solid phase extraction SPE treatment. A good accordance was found between the removal of toxicity 30% 80% and organic compounds 70% 80% after the tertiary treatment, suggesting its high efficiency to improve the wastewater quality. The discrepancy between the contribution to the overall toxicity of the nonadsorbable compounds i.e., inorganic or very polar organic compounds as experimentally measured by the SPE bioassays 18% 76% and calculated by the concentration addition approach >97% could be mitigated by including the bioavailability correction in metal toxicity modeling of wastewater mixtures. For the organic compounds, the toxic equivalency method enabled us to quantify the portion of toxicity explained by the detected chemicals in both OUT 2 82% 104% and OUT 3 5% 57% , validating the selection of the target molecules. The applied integrating approach could be implemented by the inclusion of both additional target chemicals and toxicity endpoints. Published version articolo testo 2022_Palumbo_ETC.pdf Articolo in rivista Pergamon, 0730 7268 Environmental toxicology and chemistry Environmental toxicology and chemistry Environ. toxicol. chem. Environmental toxicology and chemistry liciamaria.guzzella GUZZELLA LICIA MARIA mariateresa.palumbo PALUMBO MARIA TERESA CAPPELLI FRANCESCA stefanotasselli TASSELLI STEFANO PASCARIELLO SIMONA stefano.polesello POLESELLO STEFANO claudiogiovanni.roscioli ROSCIOLI CLAUDIO GIOVANNI laura.marziali MARZIALI LAURA lucia.valsecchi VALSECCHI LUCIA saramaria.valsecchi VALSECCHI SARA MARIA |
