Abstract
The present study investigated the occurrence and removal efficiency of some conventional pollutants, estrogenic effects, and fecal coliform in influents and/or effluents of village sewage treatment plants (STPs) in the upper, middle, and lower reaches of the Yangtze River Basin. The water quality of sewage from the village STPs showed significant seasonal and spatial variability. The removal rates of conventional pollutants by the village STPs were mostly lower than urban STPs, thereby resulting in that the water quality compliance rate of the effluents was only 33.3%. In addition, the average removal rate of estrogenic compounds was only 22.2%, which caused the estrogenicity of effluent to exceed the safety threshold. And E2 was determined to be the main estrogenic component. Moreover, ultraviolet (UV) disinfection, as the main disinfection treatment process of sewage along the Yangtze River Basin, was unable to meet the discharge standard of fecal coliform. The sequential chlorine (10 mg L−1)-UV (20 mJ cm−2) disinfection was found to both achieve up-to-standard discharge of fecal coliform and increase the removal rate of estrogenic effect from 3.78 to 9.86%. Overall, the present study provides valuable information on the conventional pollutants, estrogenic effects, and fecal coliform in sewage from village STPs along the Yangtze River Basin, and practical suggestions for basin-wide pollution control.
Graphical abstract
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article and the supplementary information files.
References
Adeel M, Song X, Wang YY, Francis D, Yang Y (2017) Environmental impact of estrogens on human, animal and plant life: a critical review. Environ Int 99:107–119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2016.12.010
Bertanza G, Pedrazzani R, Zambarda V, Grande M, Icarelli F, Baldassarre L (2010) Removal of endocrine disrupting compounds from wastewater treatment plant effluents by means of advanced oxidation. Water Sci Technol 61:1663–1671. https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.2010.132
Cao Q, Yu Q, Connell DW (2010) Fate simulation and risk assessment of endocrine disrupting chemicals in a reservoir receiving recycled wastewater. Sci Total Environ 408:6243–6250. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2010.08.059
Cao QM, Yu Q, Connell DW (2011) Health risk characterisation for environmental pollutants with a new concept of overall risk probability. J Hazard Mater 187:480–487. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2011.01.054
European Communities (1996) Technical guidance document in support of the commission directive 93/67/EEC on risk assessment for new notified substances and the commission regulation (EC) 1488/94 on risk assessment for existing substances Parts I IV. Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg
Gao XK, Zhang D (2018) Efficiency evaluation of the investment in urban sewage treatment via the three stage DEA method considering environmental factors. China Environ Sci 38:3594–3600. https://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.1000-6923.2018.09.046
Grdulska A, Kowalik R (2020) Estrogen removal from wastewater. Struct Environ 14(133):141. https://doi.org/10.30540/sae-2020-014
Guo HL, Li XW, Ren QY, Liu SY, Wu YS, Jia LM (2018) Analysis of influent water quality characteristics of typical urban sewage treatment plants in China. Water Wastewat Eng 44:12–15. https://doi.org/10.13789/j.cnki.wwe1964.2018.0155
Hansen KMS, Andersen HR (2012) Energy effectiveness of direct UV and UV/H2O2 treatment of estrogenic chemicals in biologically treated sewage. Int J Photoenergy 2012:1–9. https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/270320
Jiang DL, Ni GW, Jia JL (2012) Performance analysis of anaerobic/anoxic/oxic (A/A/O) process municipal WWTPs. Adv Mater Res 461:478–481. https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.461.478
** SW, Xu Y, Hui Y, Liao T (2005) Quantitative determination of 8 kinds of estrogenic compoubd in wastewater. China Water and Wastewater 21:94–97. https://doi.org/10.1360/biodiv.050058
Liu X, Shi J, Hui Z, Zhan X, Hu S (2014) Estimating estrogen release and load from humans and livestock in Shanghai, China. J Environ Qual 43:568–577. https://doi.org/10.2134/jeq2013.08.0328
Liu D, Wu SM, Xu HZ, Zhang Q, Zhang SH, Shi LL, Yao C, Liu YH, Cheng J (2017) Distribution and bioaccumulation of endocrine disrupting chemicals in water, sediment and fishes in a shallow Chinese freshwater lake: Implications for ecological and human health risks. Ecotox Environ Safe 140:222–229. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoenv.2017.02.045
Liu SL, Xu SQ, Chen P, Gao J, Xu Y (2020) Current situation and countermeasures of municipal wastewater treatment facilities to strengthen the weak points. China Water Wastewater 36:54–60. https://doi.org/10.19853/j.zgjsps.1000-4602.2020.22.009
Lu S, Lin C, Lei K, **n M, Wang B, Ouyang W, Liu X, He M (2021) Endocrine-disrupting chemicals in a typical urbanized bay of Yellow Sea, China: distribution, risk assessment, and identification of priority pollutants. Environ Pollut 287:117588. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2021.117588
Ministry of Environmental Protection of China (MEP) (2002) Discharge standard of pollutants for municipal wastewater treatment plant (GB18918–2002). Available at: https://www.mee.gov.cn/ywgz/fgbz/bz/bzwb/shjbh/swrwpfbz/200307/t20030701_66529.shtml. Accessed 20 April 2022
National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBSC) (2021) China statistical yearbook 2021. China Statistics Press, Bei**g. Available at: Bei**g. http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/ndsj/2021/indexch.htm. Accessed 5 June 2022
Ruan T, Dong L, Song S, Song M, Wang H, Jiang G (2015) Evaluation of the in vitro estrogenicity of emerging bisphenol analogs and their respective estrogenic contributions in municipal sewage sludge in China. Chemosphere 124:150–155. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2014.12.017
Shekhawat SS, Kulshreshtha NM, Vivekanand V, Gupta AB (2021) Impact of combined chlorine and UV technology on the bacterial diversity, antibiotic resistance genes and disinfection by-products in treated sewage. Bioresource Technol 339:125615. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2021.125615
Skouteris G, Hermosilla D, López P, Negro C, Blanco A (2012) Anaerobic membrane bioreactors for wastewater treatment: A review. Chem Eng J 198–199:138–148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2012.05.070
Song S, Song M, Zeng L, Wang T, Liu R, Ruan T, Jiang G (2014) Occurrence and profiles of bisphenol analogues in municipal sewage sludge in China. Environ Pollut 186:14–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2013.11.023
Standardization Administration of China (SAC) (2008) Testing of chemicals-Fish, prolonged toxicity: 14-day study test (GB/T 21808–2008). Available at: http://std.samr.gov.cn/gb/search/gbDetailed?id=71F772D7FF47D3A7E05397BE0A0AB82A (accessed on April 20, 2022).
Sun SP, Nàcher CP, Merkey B, Zhou Q, **a SQ, Yang DH, Sun JH, Smets BF (2010) Effective biological nitrogen removal treatment processes for domestic wastewaters with low C/N ratios: a review. Environ Eng Sci 27:111–126. https://doi.org/10.1089/ees.2009.0100
Sun J, Ji XW, Zhang R, Huang Y, Liang Y, Du JH, **e XC, Li AM (2016) Endocrine disrupting compounds reduction and water quality improvement in reclaimed municipal wastewater: a field-scale study along Jialu River in North China. Chemosphere 157:232–240. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2016.05.025
Sun J, Wang J, Zhang R, Wei DY, Long Q, Huang Y, **e XC, Li AM (2017) Comparison of different advanced treatment processes in removing endocrine disruption effects from municipal wastewater secondary effluent. Chemosphere 168:1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2016.10.031
Wang LY, Zhang XH, Tao Y (2012) Occurrence and removal of typical endocrine disrupting chemicals in sewage treatment plants. Acta Scientiae Circumstantiae 32:2741–2747. https://doi.org/10.13671/j.hjkxxb.2012.11.015
Wang Y, Shen LY, Wu J, Zhong F, Cheng SP (2020) Step-feeding ratios affect nitrogen removal and related microbial communities in multi-stage vertical flow constructed wetlands. Sci Total Environ 721:137689. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137689
Watts MJ, Linden KG (2007) Chlorine photolysis and subsequent OH radical production during UV treatment of chlorinated water. Water Res 41:2871–2878. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2007.03.032
**ao S, Lv X, Lu Y, Yang X, Dong X, Ma K, Zeng Y, ** T, Tang F (2016) Occurrence and change of estrogenic activity in the process of drinking water treatment and distribution. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23:16977–16986. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-6866-z
Xu JY, Zhao CT, Wei DB, Du YG (2014) A toxicity-based method for evaluating safety of reclaimed water for evironmental reuses. J Environ Sci 26:1961–1969
Xu Y, Nan X, Llewellyn NR, Tao H (2014b) Occurrence and removal of free and conjugated estrogens in wastewater and sludge in five sewage treatment plants. Environ Sci Proc Imp 16:262–270. https://doi.org/10.1039/c3em00199g
Yang L, Kong FL, ** M, Li Y, Zi YY (2016) Emergy analysis of typical decentralized rural sewage treatment system: A case study of soil rapid infiltration in Qingdao, China. Resour Ecol 7:309–316. https://doi.org/10.5814/j.issn.1674-764x.2016.04.010
Yao B, Li R, Yan S, Chan SA, Song W (2018) Occurrence and estrogenic activity of steroid hormones in Chinese streams: a nationwide study based on a combination of chemical and biological tools. Environ Int 118:1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2018.05.026
Ye B, Li Y, Chen Z, Wu QY, Wang WL, Wang T, Hu HY (2017) Degradation of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) by UV/chlorine oxidation: Radical roles, influencing factors, and degradation pathway. Water Res 124:381–387. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2017.05.059
Yilmaz B, Terekeci H, Sandal S, Kelestimur F (2020) Endocrine disrupting chemicals: exposure, effects on human health, mechanism of action, models for testing and strategies for prevention. Rev Endocr Metab Disord 21:127–147. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11154-019-09521-z
Yu X, Xue J, Yao H, Wu Q, Venkatesan AK, Halden RU, Kannan K (2015) Occurrence and estrogenic potency of eight bisphenol analogs in sewage sludge from the U.S. EPA targeted national sewage sludge survey. J Hazard Mater 299:733–739. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2015.07.012
Zhang ZH, Feng YJ, Gao P, Wang C, Ren NQ (2011) Occurrence and removal efficiencies of eight EDCs and estrogenicity in a STP. J Environ Monit 13:1366–1373. https://doi.org/10.1039/C0EM00597E
Zhao JL, Ying GG, Chen F, Liu YS, Wang L, Yang B, Liu S, Tao R (2011) Estrogenic activity profiles and risks in surface waters and sediments of the Pearl River system in South China assessed by chemical analysis and in vitro bioassay. J Environ Monit 13:813–821. https://doi.org/10.1039/c0em00473a
Zheng KK, Li HB, Wang S, Wang Y, Li AM, Feng X, Li J (2021) Enhanced proteins and amino acids production based on ammonia nitrogen assimilation and sludge increment by the integration of bioadsorption with anaerobis-anoxic-oxic (AAO) process. Chemosphere 280:130721. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.130721
Zhou K (1925) Fan J 2016 Regional disparity of environmental pollution source and its socio-economic influencing factors: based on the cross-section data of 339 cities at prefecture level or above in China. Acta Geogr Sin 71:1911. https://doi.org/10.11821/dlxb201611004
Zhou Y, Zha J, Xu Y, Lei B, Wang Z (2012) Occurrences of six steroid estrogens from different effluents in Bei**g, China. Environ Monit Assess 184:1719–1729. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-011-2073-z
Zhu YB, Yuan NN, Jiang W, Shi FL, Zhao LJ, Li CH, Nie YZ, Sun J, Zhong Z (2012) Problems and soultions in operation management of municipal sewage treatment plants in China. China Water and Wastewater 18:30–34. https://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.1000-4602.2012.18.008
Zorpas AA, Coumi C, Drtil M, Voukalli I, Samaras P (2010) Operation description and physicochemical characteristics of influent, effluent and the tertiary treatment from a sewage treatment plant of the Eastern Region of Cyprus under warm climates. Desalin Water Treat 22:244–257. https://doi.org/10.5004/dwt.2010.1803
Funding
This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 42177260) and postdoctoral research funding plan of Jiangsu Province (No. 2020Z262). National Natural Science Foundation of China, 42177260, Rui Zhang, Jiangsu Postdoctoral Research Foundation, 2020Z262, Jie Sun
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Rui Zhang and Yongbing Lou contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Jie Sun, Rutao Zhang, and Qiuxuan Wu. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Jie Sun and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethics approval
Concerning the protection of experimental animals, all the experiments were performed consistent with the regulations of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the Southeast University to reduce animal suffering.
Consent to participate
Not applicable.
Consent to publish
This manuscript does not contain data from any individual person. Not applicable.
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Responsible Editor:Gerald Thouand
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Information
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Sun, J., Zhang, R., **ng, L. et al. Occurrence and removal of conventional pollutants, estrogenicities, and fecal coliform in village sewage treatment plants along the Yangtze River, China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 18014–18025 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-23467-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-23467-x