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Behaviour and Fluxes of Dissolved Antibiotics, Analgesics and Hormones During Flood Events in a Small Heterogeneous Catchment in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

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Abstract

The objective of this investigation is to analyse the variations of xenobiotic concentrations and the fluxes of dissolved xenobiotics during runoff events in the small rural Mess catchment (35 km2) in the Southwestern part of Luxembourg. Sulfonamides, tetracyclines, analgesics and hormones, dissolved nutrients, sulphate and chloride were measured to gather information about runoff generation. Typically, the highest values can be found during the first flush mainly in the rising limb of the flood hydrographs. The highest concentrations in eleven flood events are measured for ibuprofen (2,383 ng l-1), estrone (27 ng l-1) and diclofenac (20 ng l-1). From the tetracycline group tetracycline (9 ng l-1) itself is of relevance, while the sulfonamides are mainly represented by sulfamethoxazole (5 ng l-1). The variable patterns of chemographs are attributed to the heterogeneous runoff generation characterised by different reactions of storm overflows from the combined sewer systems. During single flood events, the fluxes of ibuprofen (maximum 24,000 mg), 17α-ethinylestradiol (122 mg), 17β-estradiol (32 mg) or estrone (274 mg) are rather low.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the assistance of Emmanuelle Cocco and François Barnich with laboratory work. Sincere thanks are given to the “Administration des Services Techniques de l'Agriculture (ASTA)” (Agriculture Administration) for the provision of rainfall data. We also thank the ‘Ministère de la Culture, de l'Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche’ of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg for funding this pilot study. We thank the National Research Fund of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg for funding a detailed ongoing study in the framework of the XENEAU project (CORE C08/SR/04). Many thanks to Matthew R. Graham from the British Environment Agency for the useful discussions in Brussels and the technical/editorial comments. The authors would like to thank the COST office for funding COST 636, Xenobiotics in the urban water cycle. We also thank all the participants of COST 636 for inspiring meetings full of ideas and knowledge exchange.

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  1. Department of Environment and Agro-Biotechnologies (EVA), Centre de Recherche Public–Gabriel Lippmann, Rue du Brill 41, 4422, Belvaux, Luxembourg

    Jean-Yannick Pailler, Cédric Guignard, Berenike Meyer, Jean-François Iffly, Laurent Pfister, Lucien Hoffmann & Andreas Krein

  2. Department of Hydrology, Trier University, 54286, Trier, Germany

    Berenike Meyer

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  1. Jean-Yannick Pailler
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Pailler, JY., Guignard, C., Meyer, B. et al. Behaviour and Fluxes of Dissolved Antibiotics, Analgesics and Hormones During Flood Events in a Small Heterogeneous Catchment in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Water Air Soil Pollut 203, 79–98 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-009-9993-z

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