Micropollutants in wastewater treament plants of rural areas
Comportement des micropolluants au sein de filières de traitement en milieu rural
Résumé
The next challenge of wastewater treatment is to reliably remove micro-pollutants at the micro-gram per litre range in order to meet the environmental quality standards set the water framework directive. The present work assessed the efficiency of different types of secondary processes adapted for the treatment of wastewaters in rural areas (stabilization pond, vertical reed-bed filters, trickling filter and rotating biodisc associated with reed-bed filters). The removal of more than 100 priority substances and other relevant emerging pollutants were determined with mass balances at four full-scale domestic wastewater treatment plants. It is shown that the treatment processes for rural areas led to a significant reduction of the pollution loads, and the work indicates refractory micropollutants that could require additional treatment.