The emergence of micropollutants in natural water sources due to the overuse of anthropogenic chemicals in industry and households has threatened the production of clean and safe tap water in drinking water treatment plants. Conventional physicochemical processes such as coagulation/flocculation followed by sand filtration are not effective for the control of micropollutants, whereas chemical oxidation processes (applying chlorine, permanganate, ozone, etc.) are known to be promising alternatives. Determining the optimum oxidant dose is important issue related to the production of disinfection by-products as well as unnecessary operating cost, and is made possible by simulations of target-micropollutant abatement based on kinetic model equation consisting of second-order rate constant (between the oxidant and the target) and oxidant exposure. However, the difficulty in determining oxidant exposure as a function of complex water quality parameters limits the field application of kinetic model equation. With respect to representative oxidants used in drinking water treatment plants, this article reviews two main approaches for determining oxidant exposure: i) direct measurement in situ and ii) prediction by empirical models based on key water quality parameters. In addition, we discussed research requirements to improve the predictive accuracy of the empirical models for oxidant exposure and to develop a rational algorithm to determine optimal oxidant dose by considering the priority of the target pollutants to be treated.

The frequent detection and occurrence of micropollutants (MPs) in aquatic ecosystems has raised public health concerns worldwide. In this study, the behavior of 50 MPs was investigated in three different domestic wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Furthermore, the Kruskal-Wallis test was used to assess the geographical and seasonal variation of MPs in the WWTPs. The results showed that the concentrations of 43 MPs ranged from less than 0.1 to 237.6 μg L-1, while other seven MPs including 17-ethynylestradiol, 17-estradiol, sulfathiazole, sulfamethazine, clofibric acid, simvastatin, and lovastatin were not detected in all WWTPs. Among the detected MPs, the pharmaceuticals such as metformin, acetaminophen, naproxen, and caffeine were prominent with maximum concentrations of 133.4, 237.6, 71.5, and 107.7 μg L-1, respectively. Most perfluorinated compounds and nitrosamines were found at trace levels of 1.2 to 55.3 ng L-1, while the concentration of corrosion inhibitors, preservatives (parabens), and endocrine disruptors ranged from less than 0.1 to 4310.8 ng L-1. Regardless of the type of biological treatment process such as MLE, A2O, and MBR, the majority of pharmaceuticals (except lincomycin, diclofenac, iopromide, and carbamazepine), parabens (except Methyl paraben), and endocrine disruptors were removed by more than 80%. However, the removal efficiencies of certain MPs such as atrazine, DEET, perfluorinated compounds (except PFHxA), nitrosamines, and corrosion inhibitors were relatively low or their concentration even increased after treatment. The results of statistical analysis reveal that there is no significant geographical difference in the removal efficacy of MPs, but there are temporal seasonal variations in all WWTPs.

Due to the large-scale production and use of synthetic chemicals in industralized countries, various chemicals are found in the aquatic environment, which are often termed as micropollutants. Effluents of municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) have been identified as one of the major sources of these micropollutants. In this article, the current status of occurrence and removal of micropollutants in WWTPs and their management policies and options in domestic and foregin countries were critically reviewed. A large number of pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and industrial chemicals are found in WWTPs’ influent, and are only partially removed by current biological wastewater treatment processes. As a result, some micropollutants are present in WWTPs’ effluents, which can negatively affect receiving water quality or drinking water source. To better understand and assess the potential risk of micropollutants, a systematic monitoring framework including advanced analytical tools such as high resolution mass spectrometry and bioanalytical methods is needed. Some Western European countries are taking proactive approach to controlling the micropollutants by upgrading WWTP with enahnced effluent treatment processes. While this enahnced WWTP effluent treatment appears to be a viable option for controlling micropollutant, its implementation requires careful consideration of the technical, economical, political, and cultural issues of all stakeholders.

As the modern society is rapidly developing and people become affluent in materials, many new chemical compounds in different forms of products (e.g., antibiotics, pesticides, detergents, personal care products and plastic goods) are produced, used, and disposed of to the environments. Some of them are persistently having a harmful impact on the environment and mimicking endocrine properties; in general they are present in the environment at low concentrations, so they are called organic pollutants. These organic micropollutants flow to sewage treatment plants via different routes. In this study, the generation characteristics, exposure pathways, detection levels, and environmental impacts of organic micropollutants were critically reviewed. In addition, currently available risk assessment methods and management systems for the compounds were reviewed. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), for example, has monitored organic micropollutants and set the monitoring and management of some of the compounds as a priority. To effectively manage organic micropollutants in sewer systems, therefore, we should first monitor organic micropollutants of potential concern and then make a watch list of specific substances systematically, as described in guidelines on listing water pollutants in industrial wastewater.

This study examined the occurrence and removals of 14 micropollutants in the influents and the treated effluent of each process in a WTP. 12 out of the 14 micropollutants were detected in the influent source waters and 11 compounds survived in the final effluent at ppt level. MPT showed the highest level in both the influent and effluent. There was a seasonal variation in the micropollutant level. Most of the removals of micropollutants occurred at the coagulation stage in the WTP. Our results indicate that the removal of micropollutants during lab scale experiment and at the WTP can be somewhat different, and the physicochemical properties are important parameters in the removal of micropollutants during the WTP.

We compared the applicability and economical efficiency of peroxone process with those of ozone process in the existing water treatment plant on downstream of Nakdong River. After comparing the peroxone process for removing geosmin with the ozone process in lab scale test, peroxone process showed much higher removal efficiency than the ozone process at the same ozone dosage. Proper range of H2O2/O3 ratio were 0.5~1.0 and the half-life of geosmin was about 5.5~6.8 min when the H2O2/O3 ratio was set to 0.5 during 1~2 mg/L of ozone dosage. Peroxone process could reduce the ozone dosage about 50 to maximum 30% for the same geosmin removal efficiency compared to the ozone process in the pilot scale test. In case of 1,4-dioxane treatment, peroxone process could have 3~4 times higher efficiency than ozone process at the same ozone dosage. The results of estimating the economical efficiency of ozone and peroxone process for treating geosmin and 1,4-dioxane by using pilot scale test, in case of the removal target was set to 85% for these two materials, the cost of peroxane process could be reduced about 1.5 times compared to ozone process, and in the same production cost peroxone process could have 2~3 times higher removal efficiency than ozone process. The removal efficiency by peroxone process showed a large difference depending on the physicochemical characteristics of target materials and raw water, therefore detailed examination should be carried out before appling peroxone process.

Water samples from several wastewater treatment plants and two industry drains in Gyeongsangbukdo were investigated for concentration levels of micropollutants. Samples were taken totally four times from May to November of 2008 and tested for seven factors including pesticide, 1,4-Dioxane and Perchlorate which had been big issues for Nakdong river because of their contaminations. As results, 2,4-D, Alachlor, and BEHA were not detected while BEHP was detected at some sampling sites. 1,4-Dioxane and Perchlorate were also detected in wide ranges from several sampling sites. Therefore, continuous supervising and monitoring systems needed to be invested for proper management for micropollutants since those micropollutants could affect human health and aquatic system with low concentration levels.

Micropollutants, which can be caused by imperfect combustion, are toxic chemical compound that flows into the river system after being contained in road runoff, a non-point source pollutant and accumulates in the body. The micropollutants that have characteristics such as toxicity, persistence, bio-accumulation, long-range transportation behave so similarly to micro particles that they can be removed by means of filtration or absorption. This study has examined the kinds and concentrations of micropollutants contained in deposited road particles. It has revealed that the kinds of micropollutants contained in the clarified supernatant liquid of deposited road particles are heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(PAHs) composed of two or three benzene rings, including naphthalene and acenaphthalene. Their concentrations have been shown to be low, with 0.418 mg/L, 0.058 mg/L, 0.104 mg/L, 0.014 mg/L, 0.00075 mg/L for Zn, Pb, Cu, Cr, Cd, respectively and 0.00156 mg/L and 0.00184 mg/L for naphthalene and acenaphthalene.

This study investigated the distributive property of micropollutants in sediment around Gwang-yang bay using simultaneous analytical method of 310 chemicals. In the results, the major micropollutants detected were CH type chemicals such as aliphatic, polycyclic compounds, benzenes, and CHN(O) type chemicals aromatic amines, and pesticides. Insecticides of pesticide type were frequently detected at all sampling site. The total concentration of micropollutants were higher in summer than in winter and measured within the range of ND ～ 36.50㎍/L. Also, because of effect of seomjin river, GY6 of all sampling site detected by the highest concentration, GY10 and 11 located in Gwang-yang outside bay were not detected the micropollutants. From the result of this study, we should estimated that the industrial complex located in Gwang-yang inside bay and an inflow of fresh water through the Seomjin river are major pollution sources of Gwang-yang bay.