TY - JOUR

T1 - A look down the drain

T2 - Identification of dissolved and particle bound organic pollutants in urban runoff waters and sediments

AU - Fuchte, Hanna E.

AU - Beck, Natascha

AU - Bieg, Evelyn

AU - Bayer, Viviane J.

AU - Achten, Christine

AU - Krauss, Martin

AU - Schäffer, Andreas

AU - Smith, Kilian E.C.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Elsevier Ltd

PY - 2022/6/1

Y1 - 2022/6/1

N2 - Urban runoff contains a range of organic micropollutants which, if not removed during wastewater treatment, pose a risk to aquatic environments. These mixtures are complex and often site-specific. Street drains provide an ideal sampling point given they collect the runoff from local and defined catchments. In this study, runoff was collected and sampled in five street drains located in a medium sized town in Germany. A specially constructed trap was used to collect the particulate and total water fractions of the runoff. In addition, passive samplers were deployed to determine the freely dissolved concentrations of selected compounds in the runoff. In sum, 187 polar organic micropollutants could be quantified using LC-HRMS. Thirty of these could only be detected by the use of passive samplers. Traffic derived pollutants such as corrosion inhibitors, rubber- and plastic additives, but also pollutants of industrial origin were strongly represented with sum median concentrations of 100 μg/kg dry weight (DW) in the sediment and 400 ng/L in the water fraction. Several of these substances are of concern due to their environmental persistence and mobility. Perfluorinated compounds and pesticides occurred at lower levels of several μg/kg DW sediment or ng/L water. A number of substances including pharmaceuticals, sweeteners and stimulants indicated domestic wastewater influences. Furthermore, a total of 62 parent and alkylated PAHs were quantified by GC-MS and contributed 30–70% to the sum concentrations of the micropollutants. Non-EPA PAHs dominated the carcinogenic PAH toxicity. The increased PAH alkylation indices (0.7–0.9) showed these primarily came from combustion sources. The runoff particles were additionally microscopically characterized, and correlations were found between the rubber particle counts and the PAH alkylation-index as well as the levels of 2-(methylthio)benzothiazole, a marker compound for tire leaching.

AB - Urban runoff contains a range of organic micropollutants which, if not removed during wastewater treatment, pose a risk to aquatic environments. These mixtures are complex and often site-specific. Street drains provide an ideal sampling point given they collect the runoff from local and defined catchments. In this study, runoff was collected and sampled in five street drains located in a medium sized town in Germany. A specially constructed trap was used to collect the particulate and total water fractions of the runoff. In addition, passive samplers were deployed to determine the freely dissolved concentrations of selected compounds in the runoff. In sum, 187 polar organic micropollutants could be quantified using LC-HRMS. Thirty of these could only be detected by the use of passive samplers. Traffic derived pollutants such as corrosion inhibitors, rubber- and plastic additives, but also pollutants of industrial origin were strongly represented with sum median concentrations of 100 μg/kg dry weight (DW) in the sediment and 400 ng/L in the water fraction. Several of these substances are of concern due to their environmental persistence and mobility. Perfluorinated compounds and pesticides occurred at lower levels of several μg/kg DW sediment or ng/L water. A number of substances including pharmaceuticals, sweeteners and stimulants indicated domestic wastewater influences. Furthermore, a total of 62 parent and alkylated PAHs were quantified by GC-MS and contributed 30–70% to the sum concentrations of the micropollutants. Non-EPA PAHs dominated the carcinogenic PAH toxicity. The increased PAH alkylation indices (0.7–0.9) showed these primarily came from combustion sources. The runoff particles were additionally microscopically characterized, and correlations were found between the rubber particle counts and the PAH alkylation-index as well as the levels of 2-(methylthio)benzothiazole, a marker compound for tire leaching.

KW - Alkylated-PAH-BPCA-Indices

KW - Non EPA PAH

KW - Passive sampling

KW - Polar organic micropollutants

KW - Tire wear

KW - Urban street runoff

KW - Chemistry

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85125905345&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119047

DO - 10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119047

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 35227846

AN - SCOPUS:85125905345

VL - 302

JO - Environmental Pollution

JF - Environmental Pollution

SN - 0269-7491

M1 - 119047

ER -