title: Environmental risk assessment of Polish wastewater treatment plant activity.
abstract: Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) play an extremely important role in shaping modern society's environmental well-being and awareness, however only well operated and supervised systems can be considered as environmentally sustainable. For this reason, an attempt was undertaken to assess the environmental burden posed by WWTPs in major Polish cities by collecting water samples prior to and just after wastewater release points. Both classical and biological methods (Microtox(®), Ostracodtoxkit F™ and comet assay) were utilized to assess environmental impact of given WWTP. Interestingly, in some cases, water quality improvement indicated as a toxicity decrement toward one of the bio-indicating organisms makes water worse for others in the systems. This fact is particularly noticeable in case of Silesian cities where heavy industry and high population density is present. It proves that WWTP should undergo individual evaluation of pollutant removal efficiency and tuned to selectively remove pollutants of highest risk to surrounding regional ecosystems. Biotests again proved to be an extremely important tool to fully assess the impact of environmental stressors on water bodies receiving effluents from WWTPs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Gdansk University of Technology, 11/12 Narutowicza Str., Gdańsk 80-233, Poland. Electronic address: blakudla@pg.gda.pl.
authors.forename: Błażej
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kudłak
authors.affiliation: Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Gdansk University of Technology, 11/12 Narutowicza Str., Gdańsk 80-233, Poland.
authors.forename: Monika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wieczerzak
authors.affiliation: Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Sofia, 1 James Bourchier Blvd, Sofia 1164, Bulgaria.
authors.forename: Galina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Yotova
authors.affiliation: Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Sofia, 1 James Bourchier Blvd, Sofia 1164, Bulgaria.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tsakovski
authors.affiliation: Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Sofia, 1 James Bourchier Blvd, Sofia 1164, Bulgaria.
authors.forename: Vasil
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Simeonov
authors.affiliation: Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Gdansk University of Technology, 11/12 Narutowicza Str., Gdańsk 80-233, Poland.
authors.forename: Jacek
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Namieśnik
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001681:Biological Assay; D002947:Cities; D020552:Comet Assay; D003445:Crustacea / Q000187:drug effects / Q000254:growth & development; D004777:Environment; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods; D011044:Poland; D018570:Risk Assessment; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000379:methods; D062065:Wastewater / Q000633:toxicity*; D014873:Water Pollutants / Q000633:toxicity*
chemical_list: D062065:Wastewater; D014873:Water Pollutants
keywords: Biotests; Chemometrics; Ecotoxicity; Environmental stressors removal; Wastewater treatment plants