Evaluating pharmaceuticals and caffeine as indicators of fecal contamination in drinking water sources of the Greater Montreal region |
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Authors: | Daneshvar Atlasi Aboulfadl Khadija Viglino Liza Broséus Romain Sauvé Sébastien Madoux-Humery Anne-Sophie Weyhenmeyer Gesa A Prévost Michèle |
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Affiliation: | a Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, P.O. Box 7050, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden b Department of Chemistry, Université de Montréal, P.O. Box 6128, Succ. Centre-Ville, Montréal, QC, Canada H3C 3J7 c NSERC Industrial Chair on Drinking Water, Civil, Geological, and Mining Engineering Department, École Polytechnique de Montreal, CP 6079, Succ. Centre-ville, Montréal, QC, Canada H3C 3A7 d Department of Ecology and Genetics/Limnology, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 18D, SE-752 36 Uppsala, Sweden |
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Abstract: | We surveyed four different river systems in the Greater Montreal region, upstream and downstream of entry points of contamination, from April 2007 to January 2009. The studied compounds belong to three different groups: PPCPs (caffeine, carbamazepine, naproxen, gemfibrozil, and trimethoprim), hormones (progesterone, estrone, and estradiol), and triazine herbicides and their metabolites (atrazine, deethylatrazine, deisopropylatrazine, simazine, and cyanazine). In the system A, B, and C having low flow rate and high TOC, we observed the highest detection frequencies and mass flows of PPCPs compared to the other compounds, reflecting discharge of urban contaminations through WWTPs and CSOs. However, in River D, having high flow rate and low TOC, comparable frequency of detection of triazine and their by-products and PPCPs, reflecting cumulative loads of these compounds from the Great Lakes as well as persistency against natural attenuation processes. Considering large differences in the removal efficiencies of caffeine and carbamazepine, a high ratio of caffeine/carbamazepine might be an indicative of a greater proportion of raw sewage versus treated wastewater in surface waters. In addition, caffeine appeared to be a promising indicator of recent urban fecal contaminations, as shown by the significant correlation with FC (R2 = 0.45), while carbamazepine is a good indicator of cumulative persistence compounds. |
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Keywords: | Pharmaceuticals Effluent Surface water Drinking water Occurrence Indicators |
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