Environmental risk assessment of Polish wastewater treatment plant activity

Błażej Kudłak; Monika Wieczerzak; Galina Yotova; Stefan Tsakovski; Vasil Simeonov; Jacek Namieśnik

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2016.06.086

Environmental risk assessment of Polish wastewater treatment plant activity

Abstract

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) play an extremely important role in shaping modern society's environmental wellbeing and awareness, however only well operated and supervised systems can be considered as environmentally sustainable. For this reason, an attempt was undertaken to assess the environmental burden posed by WWTPs in major Polish cities by collecting water samples prior to and just after wastewater release points. Both classical and biological methods (Microtox®, Ostracodtoxkit F™ and comet assay) were utilized to assess environmental impact of given WWTP. Interestingly, in some cases, water quality improvement indicated as a toxicity decrement toward one of the bio-indicating organisms makes water worse for others in the systems. This fact is particularly noticeable in case of Silesian cities where heavy industry and high population density is present. It proves that WWTP should undergo individual evaluation of pollutant removal efficiency and tuned to selectively remove pollutants of highest risk to surrounding regional ecosystems. Biotests again proved to be an extremely important tool to fully assess the impact of environmental stressors on water bodies receiving effluents from WWTPs.

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Authors (6)

Błażej Kudłak dr hab. inż.
Monika Wieczerzak dr inż.
Galina Yotova
- University of Sofia Department of Analytical Chemistry
Stefan Tsakovski
- University of Sofia Department of Analytical Chemistry
Vasil Simeonov prof. dr hab. inż.
- University of Sofia Department of Analytical Chemistry
Jacek Namieśnik prof. dr hab. inż.

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Category:: Articles
Type:: artykuł w czasopiśmie wyróżnionym w JCR
Published in:: CHEMOSPHERE edition 160, pages 181 - 188,
ISSN: 0045-6535
Publication year:: 2016
Bibliographic description:: Kudłak B., Wieczerzak M., Yotova G., Tsakovski S., Simeonov, V., Namieśnik J.: Environmental risk assessment of Polish wastewater treatment plant activity// CHEMOSPHERE. -, iss. 160 (2016), s.181-188
DOI:: Digital Object Identifier (open in new tab) 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2016.06.086
Verified by:: Gdańsk University of Technology