title: Endocrine disrupting compounds reduction and water quality improvement in reclaimed municipal wastewater: A field-scale study along Jialu River in North China.
abstract: Several ecological restoration projects have been constructed along urban rivers in North China to purify reclaimed municipal wastewater and improve the water quality of urban rivers. These projects attempt to address several environmental issues, including treating water contamination that is not fully remediated through standard wastewater treatment. This study investigated the efficiency of reducing endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) and estrogenic activity in reclaimed municipal wastewater along an 18.5 km field-scale ecological restoration project in Jialu River. The river only receives reclaimed municipal wastewater without natural effluent in North China. Data show that the chemical oxygen demand (COD) and ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) of reclaimed municipal effluent improved when compared to the Chinese surface water standard, and natural estrogens, such as estrone (E1) and estradiol (E2), were effectively removed during ecological restoration purification processes. The estradiol activity based on measured EDCs concentrations (ΣEEQEDC) was less than 0.01 ng/L after the ecological purification of restoration river; however, synthetic endocrine disrupting compounds in reclaimed municipal wastewater, such as octylphenol (OP), bisphenol A (BPA), and dibutyl phthalate (DBP), were difficult to eliminate. The bioassays of MDA-kb2 cells and recombinant yeast in vitro showed no direct androgen response and estrogen effect in reclaimed municipal effluent after the purification processes. However, a chorionic long-term (21d) exposure in vivo test showed that exposure to the reclaimed municipal effluents, even after river purification, still significantly induced yolk protein vitellogenin (Vtg) in male zebrafish, leading to abnormal expression of testosterone (T) and E2. This indicates continued potent estrogenic activity to aquatic organisms, even after treatment and purification.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, Center for Hydrosciences Research, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, PR China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, Center for Hydrosciences Research, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, PR China.
authors.forename: Xiaowen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.affiliation: School of Resources and Environment, University of Jinan, Jinan, Shandong, PR China.
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, Center for Hydrosciences Research, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, PR China.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, Center for Hydrosciences Research, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, PR China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Shandong Academy of Environmental Science, Jinan, Shandong, PR China.
authors.forename: Jinhui
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Du
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, Center for Hydrosciences Research, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, PR China. Electronic address: xchxie@nju.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xianchuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, Center for Hydrosciences Research, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, PR China. Electronic address: liaimin99@vip.163.com.
authors.forename: Aimin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000641:Ammonia / Q000032:analysis; D057919:Biological Oxygen Demand Analysis; D002681:China; D052244:Endocrine Disruptors / Q000032:analysis / Q000633:toxicity*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D004967:Estrogens / Q000032:analysis; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000032:analysis; D045483:Rivers / Q000737:chemistry*; D012621:Seasons; D018675:Toxicity Tests / Q000379:methods*; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis / Q000633:toxicity*; D060753:Water Quality
chemical_list: D052244:Endocrine Disruptors; D004967:Estrogens; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D000641:Ammonia; D009584:Nitrogen
keywords: Ecological restoration; Endocrine disruption compounds; Estrogenic activity; Reclaimed wastewater; Urban river; Wetland