Assessment of bisphenol-A in the urban water cycle

The plasticizer bisphenol-A (BPA) is common to municipal wastewaters and can exert toxicity to exposed organisms in the environment. Here BPA concentration at 5 sewage treatment works (STW) and distribution throughout a river catchment in South West UK were investigated. Sampling sites included influent and effluent wastewater (n = 5), river water (n = 7) and digested sludge (n = 2) which were monitored for 7 consecutive days. Findings revealed average BPA loads in influent wastewater at two STWs were 10–37 times greater than the other wastewaters monitored. Concentrations up to ~100 μg L⁻¹ were measured considerably higher than previously reported for municipal wastewaters. Temporal variability throughout the week (i.e., highest concentrations during weekdays) suggests these high concentrations are linked with industrial activity. Despite ≥90% removal during wastewater treatment, notable concentrations remained in tested effluent (62–892 ng L⁻¹). However, minimal impact on BPA concentrations in river water was observed for any of the effluents. The maximum BPA concentration found in river water was 117 ng L⁻¹ which is considerably lower than the current predicted no effect concentration of 1.6 μg L⁻¹. Nevertheless, analysis of digested sludge from sites which received these elevated BPA levels revealed average concentrations of 4.6 ± 0.3 and 38.7 ± 5.4 μg g⁻¹. These sludge BPA concentrations are considerably greater than previously reported and are attributed to the high BPA loading in influent wastewater. A typical sludge application regime to agricultural land would result in a predicted BPA concentration of 297 ng g⁻¹ in soil. Further studies are needed on the toxicological thresholds of exposed terrestrial organisms in amended soils to better assess the environmental risk here.