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Assessing the efficiency of constructed wetlands in removing PPCPs from treated wastewater and mitigating the ecotoxicological impacts
Assessing the efficiency of constructed wetlands in removing PPCPs from treated wastewater and mitigating the ecotoxicological impacts
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Date
2021
Authors
Mohamed Bayati
Thi L. Ho
Danh C. Vu
Fengzhen Wang
Elizabeth Rogers
Craig Cuvellier
Steve Huebotter
Enos C. Inniss
Ranjith Udawatta
Shibu Jose
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Research Projects
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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 physicochemical
properties such as octanol-water partition coefficient (Log kow), molecular weight
(MW, g mol-1) and the acid dissociation constant (pKa).. 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).
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Keywords
Wetlands,
PPCPs,
Missouri River,
Aquatic risk assessment,
ToxPi,
ECOTOX