Impact of wastewater treatment plant discharge on the contamination of river biofilms by pharmaceuticals and antibiotic resistance

• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.11.136
• Publication Date: 2016-11-29T09:15:51Z
• Authors: Elodie Aubertheau; Thibault Stalder; Leslie Mondamert; Marie-Cécile Ploy; Christophe Dagot; Jérôme Labanowski
• Keywords: 570; [SDV.TOX.ECO] Life Sciences [q-bio]/Toxicology/Ecotoxicology; Antibiotic resistance; River quality; Drug Resistance, Microbial; Wastewater; Waste Disposal, Fluid; 01 natural sciences; 6. Clean water; 12. Responsible consumption; [SDE.BE] Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology; Rivers; 13. Climate action; Biofilms; 11. Sustainability; Pharmaceuticals; [SDV.TOX.ECO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Toxicology/Ecotoxicology; [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology; Water Microbiology; Water Pollutants, Chemical; Environmental Monitoring; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are one of the main sources of pharmaceutical residue in surface water. Epilithic biofilms were collected downstream from 12 WWTPs of various types and capacities to study the impacts of their discharge through the changes in biofilm composition (compared to a corresponding upstream biofilm) in terms of pharmaceutical concentrations and bacterial community modifications (microbial diversity and resistance integrons). The biofilm is a promising indicator to evaluate the impacts of WWTPs on the surrounding aquatic environment. Indeed, the use of biofilms reveals contamination hot spots. All of the downstream biofilms present significant concentrations (up to 965ng/g) of five to 11 pharmaceuticals (among the 12 analysed). Moreover, the exposition to the discharge point increases the presence of resistance integrons (three to 31 fold for Class 1) and modifies the diversity of the bacterial communities (for example cyanobacteria). The present study confirms that the discharge from WWTPs has an impact on the aquatic environment.