%0 Journal Article
%T Influence of different flow conditions on the occurrence and behavior of potentially hazardous organic xenobiotics in the influent and effluent of a municipal sewage treatment plant in Germany: an effect-directed approach
%A Peter Faber
%A Reinhard Bierl
%J Environmental Sciences Europe
%D 2012
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/2190-4715-24-2
%X Summarizing, medium to highly polar organic compounds were particularly relevant for the total toxicity of organic xenobiotics. For rising wastewater flow under wet weather conditions, we observed a significant decrease in the overall toxicity of the organic pollutants and specifically in the toxic effects of the moderately polar fraction 2.The results provide the starting point for an important risk assessment regarding the occurrence and behavior of potentially toxic xenobiotics by differentiated polarity in municipal wastewater for varying flow conditions.As a result of the high standard of urban drainage system and the permanent development of wastewater treatment technology in municipal sewage treatment plants [STPs], the quality of receiving waters has been markedly improved in recent years. Due to a significant reduction in nutrient levels and, mainly, the elimination of the content of dissolved organic carbon in wastewater, traditional environmental problems in receiving waters such as oxygen depletion and eutrophication could be significantly diminished [1]. Nevertheless, the incomplete retention of especially polar organic xenobiotics in conventional STPs is a main challenge for urban water management today. Although the technical requirements to increase the removal efficiency of polar organic substances by advanced treatment steps such as ozonation, nanofiltration, or activated carbon already exist, these facilities have not been applied in most STPs so far due to their high costs [2]. Treated wastewater effluents are therefore still the main contributors to the contamination of receiving waters by potentially hazardous organic xenobiotics [3].In this context, flow conditions of wastewater are important factors for the occurrence and the behavior of dissolved and particle-bound organic pollutants in raw and treated wastewater (Figure 1). Precipitation runoff from urban areas can be recorded by an increase of total wastewater flow in combined sewer system
%K wastewater
%K bioluminescence inhibition assay
%K fractionation
%K flow conditions
%K toxicity
%K organic pollutants
%U http://www.enveurope.com/content/24/1/2