CSIRO, Centre for Environmental Contaminants, Waite Campus, Adelaide, SA, Australia, 5064,
Environ Monit Assess. 2013 Nov;185(11):9321-32. doi: 10.1007/s10661-013-3254-8. Epub 2013 Jun 1.
The assessment of potential impacts of wastewater effluent discharges in freshwater systems requires an understanding of the likely degrees of dilution and potential zones of influence. In this study, four tracers commonly present in wastewater effluents were monitored to compare their relative effectiveness in determining areas in freshwater systems that are likely to be impacted by effluent discharges. The four tracers selected were the human pharmaceutical carbamazepine, anthropogenic gadolinium, fluorescent-dissolved organic matter (fDOM), and electrical conductivity (EC). The four tracers were monitored longitudinally in two distinct freshwater systems receiving wastewater effluents, where one site had a high level of effluent dilution (effluent <1% of total flow) and the other site had a low level of effluent dilution (effluent ∼50% of total flow). At both sites, the selected tracers exhibited a similar pattern of response intensity downstream of discharge points relative to undiluted wastewater effluent, although a number of anomalies were noted between the tracers. Both EC and fDOM are non-specific to human influences, and both had a high background response, relative to the highly sensitive carbamazepine and anthropogenic gadolinium responses, although the ease of measuring EC and fDOM would make them more adaptable in highly variable systems. However, the greater sensitivity and selectivity of carbamazepine and gadolinium would make their combination with EC and fDOM as tracers of wastewater effluent discharges highly desirable to overcome potential limitations of individual tracers.
评估废水排放对淡水系统的潜在影响需要了解可能的稀释程度和潜在影响区域。在这项研究中，监测了四种常见于废水废水中的示踪剂，以比较它们在确定淡水系统中可能受到废水排放影响的区域方面的相对有效性。选择的四种示踪剂是人类药物卡马西平、人为钆、荧光溶解有机物 (fDOM) 和电导率 (EC)。这四种示踪剂在两个接收废水的不同淡水系统中进行了纵向监测，其中一个地点的废水稀释程度很高（废水<总流量的 1%），另一个地点的废水稀释程度较低（废水约为总流量的 50%）。在这两个地点，相对于未经稀释的废水，选定的示踪剂在排放点下游的响应强度都呈现出相似的模式，但示踪剂之间存在一些异常。EC 和 fDOM 都不是人类影响的特异性示踪剂，与高度敏感的卡马西平和人为钆的响应相比，它们的背景响应都很高，尽管 EC 和 fDOM 易于测量，但它们在高度可变的系统中更具适应性。然而，卡马西平和钆的更高灵敏度和选择性将使它们与 EC 和 fDOM 结合作为废水排放的示踪剂非常理想，可以克服单个示踪剂的潜在限制。
