Poseidon
Assessment of Technologies for the
Removal of Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products in Sewage and Drinking
Water Facilities to improve the Indirect Potable Water Reuse
Municipal wastewater contains a multitude of persistent
organic compounds derived from the domestic application of pharmaceuticals and
personal care products (PPCPs). In monitoring programs of European STP effluents
and rivers over 30 pharmaceuticals and metabolites were quantified in
concentrations up to µg/L. In 1 % of about 230 German groundwater samples mainly
located close to polluted small rivers or streams the concentrations exceeded
even 1 µg/L, and 25 % exhibited concentration levels above the limit of
quantification. In some cases even drinking water is contaminated with PPCPs.
Pharmaceuticals are designed to induce specific biological effects at specific
target organisms for a limited period of time. The continuous, wide spread,
long-term exposure of PPCPs to the environment and humans, although at low
concentration levels, may result first in gradual almost hardly detectable
changes. However, in the long run significant impacts on the environmental and
human health can not be excluded.
Improvement of wastewater treatment guarantees that the contamination of the environment with PPCPs is lowered and that costs in drinking water treatment can be reduced. One of the first crucial outcomes of POSEIDON in preventing PPCP contamination of receiving waters is the establishment of ozonation for treated wastewater: O3-based oxidation processes have a high potential for the elimination of many crucial target compounds including 17?-ethinylestradiol, 17?-estradiol and estrone (pilot scale experiments in co-operation with WEDECO).
Eight research groups from 7 European countries (France, Spain,
Finland, Poland, Austria, Switzerland and Germany) are involved, studying
wastewater, groundwater and drinking water production aspects.
