Occurrence of sulfonamide residues along the Ebro river basin: Removal in wastewater treatment plants and environmental impact assessment

Sulfonamides (SAs) have become one of the antibiotic families most frequently found in all kind of environmental waters. In the present work, the presence of 16 SAs and one of their acetylated metabolites in different water matrices of the Ebro River basin has been evaluated during two different sampling campaigns carried out in 2007 and 2008. Influent and effluent samples from seven wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), together with a total of 28 river water samples were analyzed by on-line solid phase extraction-liquid chromathography-tandem mass spectrometry (on-line SPE-LC-MS/MS). Sulfamethoxazole and sulfapyridine were the SAs most frequently detected in WWTPs (96–100%), showing also the highest concentrations, ranging from 27.2 ng L− 1 to 596 ng L− 1 for sulfamethoxazole and from 3.7 ng L− 1 to 227 ng L− 1 for sulfapyridine. Sulfamethoxazole was also the SA most frequently detected in surface waters (85% of the samples) at concentrations between 11 ng L− 1 and 112 ng L− 1. In order to assess the effectiveness of the wastewater treatment in degrading SAs, removal efficiencies in the seven WWTPs were calculated for each individual SA (ranging from 4% to 100%) and correlated to the corresponding hydraulic retention times or residence times of the SAs in the plants. SAs half-lives were also estimated, ranging from to 2.5 hours (sulfadimethoxine) to 128 h (sulfamethazine). The contribution of the WWTPs to the presence of SAs depends on both the load of SAs discharging on the surface water from the WWTP effluent but also on the flow of the receiving waters in the discharge sites and the dilution exerted; WWTP4 exerts the highest pressure on the receiving water course. Finally, the potential environmental risk posed by SAs was evaluated calculating the hazard quotients (HQ) to different non-target organisms in effluent and river water. The degree of susceptibility resulted in algae > daphnia > fish. Sulfamethoxazole was the only SA posing a risk to algae in effluent water, with an HQ > 7.

Research Highlights
► Sulfamethoxazole poses an environmental risk to algae in environmental waters.
► Sulfamethoxazole is detected at the highest concentrations in environmental waters.
► Wastewater treatment is not efficient to eliminate sulfonamides.
► Negative elimination during wastewater treatment is frequent for sulfamethoxazole.