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Distribution, Sources, and Risk Assessment of Emerging Contaminants in the Effluents from Large-Scale Wastewater Treatment Plants in Guangzhou Central Districts, South China

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Abstract

The large-scale wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in developed regions collect volumes of wastewater containing various emerging contaminants (ECs) every day, but without any effective process to eliminate them. Therefore, it is of vital importance to study the occurrence of ECs in the effluents from WWTPs. In this study, the concentration levels and pollution characteristics of typical ECs in effluents were investigated for source identification and risk assessment. In total, 13 of 39 analyzed ECs were detected in the effluents, with the highest detection concentration at 706 µg/L (oxolinic acid). Sulfaphenazole showed the highest detection frequency at 100%, while Liede WWTP (1.2 million m3/day), located at Tianhe District, was with the highest detection concentration (899 µg/L) among all sampling sites. Parallel factor analysis was applied to identify the dissolved organic matters (DOMs) of excitation–emission matrix spectroscopy (EEMS) first. Based on previous research data, the connection between DOMs and pollution sources could be built. Then, principal component analysis (PCA) and Pearson’s correlation analysis were used to determine the correlation between ECs and DOMs. Finally, ecological and health risk quotients were calculated for the risk assessment of ECs. The results illustrated that oxolinic acid, sulfaphenazole, sulfaquinoxaline, sulfadimethoxypyrimidine, penicillin V, and flumequine were potentially discharged from human activities and livestock, poultry, and aquaculture industry; the possible sources of sulfadoxine and nafcillin were agricultural activities, food production, and catering industry; sulfapyridine and erythromycin were believed to come from hospital wastewater; and the discharges of lincomycin, sulfameter, and sulfamerazine were related to petrochemical industry or chemical production activities. Except for sulfadoxine, all detected ECs posed a high or median risk on aquatic ecosystem, which is enough to threaten aquatic organisms. Even though only oxolinic acid, sulfaquinoxaline, and sulfadimethoxypyrimidine presented a potential risk on humans’ health, the cumulative effect of ECs in the human body still needs attention. The threats of ECs from large-scale WWTPs in China’s developed regions are pointed out for the first time, which could possibly bring widespread attention on emerging pollution from WWTP effluents, potentially advance the introduction of relevant policies, and provide the direction and target pollutants for follow-up mitigation actions.

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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article (and its supplementary information files).

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Acknowledgements

Financial support is gratefully acknowledged from the National Key Research and Development Project (No. 2018YFE0110400) and The National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21978102).

Funding

This work was financially supported by National Key Research and Development Project (No. 2018YFE0110400) and The National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21978102).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Sihua Xiao, Jinquan Wan, Yan Wang, Zhicheng Yan, Yongwen Ma, Jian Sun, Min Tang, Jianye Cao & Jinxin Chen

  2. Guangdong Guangye Environmental Protection Industry Group Corporation Limited, Guangzhou, 510000, China

    Sihua Xiao

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  1. Sihua Xiao
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  2. Jinquan Wan
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  3. Yan Wang
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  7. Min Tang
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Contributions

Sihua Xiao: conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, visualization, investigation, data curation, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing. Jinquan Wan: writing—review and editing, supervision, funding acquisition. Yan Wang: conceptualization, writing—review and editing, validation. Zhicheng Yan: conceptualization, supervision. Yongwen Ma: writing—review and editing, supervision. Sun Jian: writing—review and editing, visualization, validation. Min Tang: writing—review and editing, validation. Jianye Cao: investigation, writing—review and editing. Jinxin Chen: investigation, writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Jinquan Wan.

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Xiao, S., Wan, J., Wang, Y. et al. Distribution, Sources, and Risk Assessment of Emerging Contaminants in the Effluents from Large-Scale Wastewater Treatment Plants in Guangzhou Central Districts, South China. Water Air Soil Pollut 234, 455 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-023-06410-9

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