In areas characterized by water scarcity, wastewater represents an appealing option for use in agriculture for irrigation purposes. Down-the-drain organic microcontaminants (e.g., pharmaceuticals and personal care products) entering municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) typically undergo incomplete removal. Hence, irrigation with treated effluents represents a vector of microcontaminants to agricultural systems and may eventually result in the uptake and accumulation in irrigated crops, possibly leading to human exposure via crop consumption. While most of existing evidence on crop uptake following irrigation with wastewater has been obtained under lab-scale conditions, only a limited number of studies focused on field-scale agricultural systems, likely due to major experimental efforts. In this context, modelling tools integrating fate predictions in wastewater treatment and wastewater irrigated agricultural systems can be highly beneficial. In this study, integrated models of different complexity were used to simulate the fate of excreted organic microcontaminants during transport in sewers, wastewater treatment and uptake in crops irrigated with treated effluent. Integrated models were adapted and tested for two existing scenarios, where direct reuse of treated wastewater for crop irrigation is a long-term (>10 years) established practice.

Modelling the fate of organic microcontaminants in wastewater treatment and agricultural reuse – Experiences from two existing cases

Delli Compagni, Riccardo;GABRIELLI, MARCO;Turolla, Andrea;Antonelli, Manuela;
2018-01-01

Abstract

In areas characterized by water scarcity, wastewater represents an appealing option for use in agriculture for irrigation purposes. Down-the-drain organic microcontaminants (e.g., pharmaceuticals and personal care products) entering municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) typically undergo incomplete removal. Hence, irrigation with treated effluents represents a vector of microcontaminants to agricultural systems and may eventually result in the uptake and accumulation in irrigated crops, possibly leading to human exposure via crop consumption. While most of existing evidence on crop uptake following irrigation with wastewater has been obtained under lab-scale conditions, only a limited number of studies focused on field-scale agricultural systems, likely due to major experimental efforts. In this context, modelling tools integrating fate predictions in wastewater treatment and wastewater irrigated agricultural systems can be highly beneficial. In this study, integrated models of different complexity were used to simulate the fate of excreted organic microcontaminants during transport in sewers, wastewater treatment and uptake in crops irrigated with treated effluent. Integrated models were adapted and tested for two existing scenarios, where direct reuse of treated wastewater for crop irrigation is a long-term (>10 years) established practice.
2018
crop uptake, integrated modelling, pharmaceuticals, irrigation
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11311/1078103
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