PARENT SESSION
PS20 - Passive Samplers for POPs
Sunday, 17 November 2002
8:00 AM to 6:30 PM
Exhibit Hall
(P189) Persistent organic pollutants (POP) in wastewater treatment plants sampled by semipermeable membrane devices (SPMD).
Bergqvist, Per-Anders*,1, Augulyte, Lijana2, Zaliauskiene, Audrone2, 1 Environmental Chemistry, Umeå University, Umeå2 Environmental Engineering, Kaunas University of Technology, Kaunas, Lithuania
ABSTRACT- Wastewater treatment plants with biological and chemical treatment have been investigated in both Sweden and in Lithuania regarding dissolved concentrations of a multitude of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Samples were taken in incoming as well as outgoing water from the plant during three weeks. The size of the plants is between 100.000 and 200.000 person equivalents per day. In the smaller plant also the sludge centrifuge water and air leaving the centrifuge were studied. Sampling with semipermeable membrane devices (SPMD) reveals mainly the dissolved concentrations of lipophilic compounds and is presented as a time weighted average (TWA) concentration in the water. In this study PAH, PCB, organochlorine pesticides and musk compounds were studied. For all these groups of compounds labelled standards were added prior to analysis as well as performance reference compounds (PRC) for sampling. Analyses were performed by GPC followed by HRGC/LRMS. The results indicate that the wastewater treatment plants do not lower the water concentration of many of the POPs studied even if the organic waste is efficiently reduced. Evaporation of POPs from the centrifuge water into the workplace was identified.
Key words: SPMD, wastewater treatment, bioavaibility, POP