Simultaneous Measurement of Emerging Micro-Pollutants in Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants

The continuous release of emerging pollutants into aquatic environments has become a global problem. The long-term stability of drugs (emerging contaminants) discharged into wastewater, even in small quantities, is one of the many environmental consequences. Improvements in laboratory analysis equipment as well as test methods have made it possible to identify these drugs at low concentrations in the environment. For this purpose, in the current study on the size of diclofenac, Ibuprofen, Naproxen and Selex (Celecoxib) and the rate of reduction of these drugs in the treatment plant system of Tehran Province (WP1-12) in two “one-year” periods from August 2015 to August 2016 and August 2017 to August 2018, HPLC tests were performed. Limit of Quality (LOQ) for diclofenac, ibuprofen, naproxen and Selex were in the range between 0.001 to 37, 0.005 to 52, 0.001 to 45 and 0.005 and 48 micrograms, respectively. The average residual amount of these drugs in all refineries (WP1-12) was between 46 to 2%, showing an average elimination of 57.7%, with the highest amount in July and the highest removal in March. In addition, in all studied treatment plants, the removal percentage of ibuprofen was higher than Selex, the removal percentage of diclofenac was the highest and the removal percentage of naproxen was the lowest of all. Statistical analyses showed that there is no significant correlation between different seasons and the measured amount for these pollutants.