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Efficacy of an Advanced Sewage Treatment Plant in Southeast Queensland, Australia, to Remove Estrogenic Chemicals

2005; American Chemical Society; Volume: 39; Issue: 15 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1021/es0484303

1520-5851

Frédéric D.L. Leusch, Heather Chapman, Wolfgang Körner, Ravi Gooneratne, Louis A. Tremblay,

Environmental Toxicology and Ecotoxicology

The estrogenicity profile of domestic sewage during treatment at a medium-sized (3800 EP) advanced biological nutrient removal plant in Queensland, Australia, was characterized using a sheep estrogen receptor binding assay (ERBA) and the MCF-7 breast cancer cell proliferation assay (E-Screen). The raw influent was highly estrogenic (20−54 ng/L EEq), and primary treatment resulted in a slight increase in estrogenicity that was detected in one of the assays (6−80 ng/L). Concurrent chemical analysis suggested that most of the estrogenicity in the influent was due to natural hormones (>48%). Secondary activated sludge treatment followed by nitrification/denitrification effectively removed >95% of the estrogenic activity (to <0.75−2.6 ng/L), and estrogenicity of the final tertiary-treated effluent was below the detection limit of both assays (<0.75 ng/L).