Assessing the efficiency of constructed wetlands in removing PPCPs from treated wastewater and mitigating the ecotoxicological impacts

Mohamed Bayati; Thi L Ho; Danh C Vu; Fengzhen Wang; Elizabeth Rogers; Craig Cuvellier; Steve Huebotter; Enos C Inniss; Ranjith Udawatta; Shibu Jose; Chung-Ho Lin

doi:10.1016/j.ijheh.2020.113664

Assessing the efficiency of constructed wetlands in removing PPCPs from treated wastewater and mitigating the ecotoxicological impacts

Int J Hyg Environ Health. 2021 Jan:231:113664. doi: 10.1016/j.ijheh.2020.113664. Epub 2020 Nov 16.

Authors

Mohamed Bayati¹, Thi L Ho², Danh C Vu³, Fengzhen Wang⁴, Elizabeth Rogers⁵, Craig Cuvellier⁶, Steve Huebotter⁶, Enos C Inniss⁷, Ranjith Udawatta⁸, Shibu Jose⁵, Chung-Ho Lin⁹

Affiliations

¹ Center for Agroforestry, University of Missouri-Columbia, USA; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Missouri-Columbia, USA; Department of Environmental Engineering, Tikrit University, Iraq.
² Center for Agroforestry, University of Missouri-Columbia, USA; Center of Core Facilities, Cuu Long Delta Rice Research Institute, Viet Nam.
³ Faculty of Technology, Van Lang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam.
⁴ School of Art and design, Wuhan University of Technology, China.
⁵ Center for Agroforestry, University of Missouri-Columbia, USA; School of Natural Resources, University of Missouri-Columbia, USA.
⁶ Columbia Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant, Missouri, USA.
⁷ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Missouri-Columbia, USA.
⁸ Center for Agroforestry, University of Missouri-Columbia, USA.
⁹ Center for Agroforestry, University of Missouri-Columbia, USA; School of Natural Resources, University of Missouri-Columbia, USA. Electronic address: linchu@missouri.edu.

PMID: 33212356
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijheh.2020.113664

Abstract

The prevalence of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in municipal wastewater has led to increased concerns about their impact on both human health and ecosystem. The constructed wetlands have been recognized as one of the cost-effective and green mitigation approaches to remove the PPCPs in the municipal wastewater. In this study, the effectiveness of a full scale constructed wetlands treatment system (CCWTs) in removing the 36 PPCPs was investigated. The load mass of PPCPs discharged by the wastewater treatment plant into the CCWTs was calculated. Removal efficiencies of PPCPs were evaluated based on physico-chemical properties such as octanol-water partition coefficient (Log k_ow), molecular weight (MW, g mol^-1) and the acid dissociation constant (pK_a). The CCWTs are especially efficient in removing azithromycin, sertraline, tolfenamic acid, and diphenhydramine with removing efficiency >88%. However, the removal efficiencies of PPCPs in CCWTs exhibit a large variability, depending on physical and chemical properties of the molecules, with 4.7-96.7% for antibiotics, 5-86% for antidepressant and antiseizure drugs, 3.5-88% for NSAIDs, 29-77% for β-blockers and statins and 5.5-94% for other types of PPCPs. In addition, the environmental risk assessment showed that majority of the PPCPs (excluding sulfamethoxazole) in the effluent yielded low aquatic risk (risk quotient, RQ ≤ 0.1) due to the efficiency of CCWTs. The toxicity index scores were calculated by integration of the predicted and available toxicological hazard data into the prioritization ranking algorithm through Toxicological Prioritization Index (ToxPi).

Keywords: Aquatic risk assessment; ECOTOX; Missouri river; PPCPs; ToxPi; Wetlands.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Cosmetics*
Ecosystem
Humans
Pharmaceutical Preparations*
Waste Disposal, Fluid
Wastewater / analysis
Water Pollutants, Chemical* / analysis
Wetlands

Substances

Cosmetics
Pharmaceutical Preparations
Waste Water
Water Pollutants, Chemical