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A SWMM-Based Screening Model for Estimating Wastewater Treatment Burden of Pesticides on the Urban Scale

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Abstract

To estimate the treatment load of pesticides for wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) on an urban scale, we developed a SWMM-based screening model that integrates the mass balance of pesticides in residential soil and the storm-water runoff passing through residential lawns. Furthermore, we introduce an approximate approach that simplifies the simulation using the octanol–water partition coefficients (i.e., log KOW) of pesticides. The results indicate that the simulated transport factors (i.e., the dissipation kinetics-relevant property from the soil) of systemic pesticides (i.e., log KOW < 2.0) are constant, whereas those of non-systemic pesticides decrease with increasing log KOW, indicating that highly lipophilic pesticides are thermodynamically favored for soil absorption. By using the approximate approach, we estimated the total mass of pesticides entering the urban sewer system and the pesticide concentrations in the influent of WWTPs for a midsize city. The results indicate that the estimated concentration of systemic pesticides in the influent is ~9.2 ng L−1 and that of pesticides with log KOW values above 3.0 is below 0.84 ng L−1. The pesticide concentrations are consistent with published field data, indicating that the approximate approach can be applied as preliminary modeling tool to recommend pretreatment values for urban WWTPs. Although the model must be further validated and refined using field data, the screening method can be used to help urban planners and engineers to manage the treatment process of pesticides in WWTPs.

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Author contributions

ZL: Conceptualization, methodology, data curation, formal analysis, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing, resources, funding acquisition, project administration, supervision, read and approved the final version of the article. YW: methodology, data curation, formal analysis, discussion. CW: methodology, data curation, formal analysis, discussion, project administration, supervision, read and approved the final version of the article.

Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 42107495).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Health (Shenzhen), Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen, 518107, China

    Zijian Li

  2. Department of Geotechnical Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Yingjie Wu & Chen Wang

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  1. Zijian Li
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  2. Yingjie Wu
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Correspondence to Chen Wang.

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Li, Z., Wu, Y. & Wang, C. A SWMM-Based Screening Model for Estimating Wastewater Treatment Burden of Pesticides on the Urban Scale. Environmental Management 71, 785–794 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-022-01717-5

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