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Ecological Risk Assessment of Emerging Pollutants in Drinking Water

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A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Water Quality and Contamination".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 April 2022) | Viewed by 13281

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Donghai Wu

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Guest Editor

College of Environment, Hohai University, Nanjing, China
Interests: aquatic environment protection; water treatment; drinking water; emerging pollutants; advanced oxidation processes; membrane filtration; ecological risk assessment

Prof. Dr. Zhenhua Yan

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Guest Editor

College of Environment, Hohai University, 1 Xikan Road, Nanjing, China
Interests: emerging pollutants; combined pollution; nanoparticles; interactions; ecological risk

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Due to their wide use and incomplete elimination, emerging pollutants have been frequently detected in various aquatic environments. Although the concentrations of these pollutants are generally found at low levels, their presence is considered to pose a threat to aquatic organisms and human health. However, the occurrence and risks of emerging pollutants in tap water and related water sources is still largely unknown. There is also limited information available on the removal, transportation, and transformation of aqueous emerging pollutants. Given that the emerging pollutants in drinking water may threaten human health, special attention should be paid to these pollutants.

We invite research and review papers on, but not limited to, the following research areas:

Detection methods for emerging pollutants in drinking water;
Ecological effect of emerging pollutants in water;
Ecological risk assessment of water contaminated with emerging pollutants;
Removal of emerging pollutants from water;
Transportation and transformation of emerging pollutants.

This Special Issue will include research from around the world to face the challenges associated with emerging pollutants in drinking water and the related risks.

Prof. Dr. Donghai Wu
Prof. Dr. Zhenhua Yan
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

emerging pollutants
drinking water
ecological risk
transportation
transformation
elimination
water source
ecological safety

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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14 pages, 1644 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Influence of Solar Photovoltaic System on the Concentration and Environmental Risks of Heavy Metals in Subsidence Pond Water from Coal Mining Area: A Case Study from Huainan Subsidence Pond

by Xingming Wang, Yingying Zhao, Zhaoxia Chu, Xiaokun Yu, Tingyu Fan, Gang Li, Jiamei Zhang, Xiaoping Xu, Quan Zhen, Xiaojing Cheng and Zhongbing Dong

Water 2022, 14(14), 2257; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/w14142257 - 19 Jul 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2006

Abstract

The subsidence pond is an important water resource for coal mining areas in China. In order to take full advantage of the subsidence pond, a floating photovoltaic cover or a pillaring photovoltaic cover were installed on the surface water of the subsidence pond in the Huainan coal field. Different photovoltaic systems (floating/pilling cover) equipped in the subsidence pond may affect the water quality; thus, assessing the metals in the subsidence pond with the solar photovoltaic system is of great importance for environment control. In this research, surface water samples were collected from three different subsidence ponds, with or without the solar photovoltaic system. The concentrations of Pb, Cr, Ni, Cu, As, Mn, and Zn in the water of the subsidence pond were determined using ICP-MS and AFS. Then, the health risk posed by the heavy metal in different subsidence pond waters via the ingestion pathway was evaluated and analyzed using the assessment model recommended by USEPA. The results indicated that the mean concentrations of Pb, Cr, Ni, Cu, As, Mn, and Zn in the water of different subsidence ponds were less than the environmental quality standards for surface water (China, Grade II). Cr showed a higher non-carcinogenic risk than the other metals, and the photovoltaic cover actually decreased the total non-carcinogenic risk in the photovoltaic subsidence pond compared with the natural subsidence pond. Non-carcinogenic risks of single and total heavy metals in the subsidence ponds with or without solar photovoltaic systems were below 1; thus, these risks in different subsidence ponds were considered to be at an acceptable level. However, the potential single carcinogenic risks of Cr, Ni, and As; and the multielement carcinogenic risks of Pb, Cr, Ni, and As exceeded the limits of 1 × 10⁻⁶ and 1 × 10⁻⁴, respectively, suggesting that these metals showed single and total potential health risks in the subsidence pond, with or without the solar photovoltaic system. Further, the subsidence pond with the photovoltaic cover showed higher total carcinogenic risks in comparison with the natural subsidence pond. Therefore, a subsidence pond with a solar photovoltaic system should be monitored periodically to ensure the water safety. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecological Risk Assessment of Emerging Pollutants in Drinking Water)

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9 pages, 1375 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Reactive Transport of NH₄⁺ in the Hyporheic Zone from the Ground Water to the Surface Water

by Ailan Yan, Xianyan Guo, Donghui Hu and Xiaoyang Chen

Water 2022, 14(8), 1237; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/w14081237 - 12 Apr 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1386

Abstract

Nowadays, ammonia nitrogen (NH₄⁺) pollution gets more and more attention in drinking water sources. This study investigated the main behavior of biogeochemical NH₄⁺ from groundwater to surface water in a hyporheic zone (HZ) sediment from a reservoir. The experiments were conducted using synthetic groundwater to investigate ammonium transformation. The results indicated that ammonium concentration decreased, apparently resulting from the influence of microbial oxidation and ion exchange with Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, K⁺, and Na⁺. However, all the ammonium in the sediment was oxidized, then the adsorbed NH₄⁺ became bioavailable by being released back when NH₄⁺ concentration decreased in the aqueous phase. The results showed NH₄⁺ behavior in a HZ where the aerobic and anaerobic environments frequently exchange, with different hydrological conditions controlled by a strong coupling between microbial activities, geochemistry, hydrology, and ion exchange. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecological Risk Assessment of Emerging Pollutants in Drinking Water)

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13 pages, 2338 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Removal of Aqueous Para-Aminobenzoic Acid Using a Compartmental Electro-Peroxone Process

by Donghai Wu, Yuexian Li, Guanghua Lu, Qiuhong Lin, Lei Wei and Pei Zhang

Water 2021, 13(21), 2961; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/w13212961 - 20 Oct 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1892

Abstract

The presence of emerging contaminant para-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) in the aquatic environment or drinking water has the potential to harm the aquatic ecosystem and human health. In this work, the removal of aqueous PABA by a compartmental electro-peroxone (E-peroxone) process was systematically investigated from the kinetic and mechanism viewpoints. The results suggest that single electrolysis or ozonation was inefficient in PABA elimination, and the combined E-peroxone yielded synergistic target pollutant degradation. Compared to the conventional E-peroxone oxidation, the sequential cathodic reactions, followed by anodic oxidations, improved the PABA removal efficiency from ~63.6% to ~89.5% at a 10-min treatment, and the corresponding pseudo first-order kinetic reaction rate constant increased from ~1.6 × 10⁻³ to ~3.6 × 10⁻³ s⁻¹. Moreover, the response surface methodology (RSM) analysis indicated that the appropriate increase of inlet ozone concentration, applied current density, initial solution pH value, and solution temperature could accelerate the PABA degradation, while the excess of these operational parameters would have a negative effect on the treatment efficiency. The comparation tests revealed that the coupling of electrolysis and ozonation could synergistically produce hydroxyl radicals (HO•) and the separation of cathodic reactions and anodic oxidations further promoted the HO• generation, which was responsible for the enhancement of PABA elimination in the compartmental E-peroxone process. These observations imply that the compartmental E-peroxone process has the potential for aqueous micropollutants elimination, and the reaction conditions that favor the reactive oxygen species generation are critical for the treatment efficiency. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecological Risk Assessment of Emerging Pollutants in Drinking Water)

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24 pages, 4175 KiB

Open AccessArticle

GIS, Multivariate Statistics Analysis and Health Risk Assessment of Water Supply Quality for Human Use in Central Mexico

by Leonel Hernández-Mena, María Guadalupe Panduro-Rivera, José de Jesús Díaz-Torres, Valeria Ojeda-Castillo, Jorge del Real-Olvera, Malaquías López-Cervantes, Reyna Lizette Pacheco-Domínguez, Ofelia Morton-Bermea, Rogelio Santacruz-Benítez, Ramiro Vallejo-Rodríguez, Daryl Rafael Osuna-Laveaga, Erick R. Bandala and Valentín Flores-Payán

Water 2021, 13(16), 2196; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/w13162196 - 12 Aug 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3322

Abstract

The spatial assessments of water supply quality from wells, springs, and surface bodies were performed during the dry and rainy seasons in six municipalities in the eastern regions of Michoacán (Central Mexico). Different physicochemical parameters were used to determine the supplies’ Water Quality Index (WQI); all of the communities presented good quality. The analysis indicates that many water quality parameters were within limits set by the international standards, showing levels of “excellent and good quality” according to WQI, mainly during the dry season (except at San Pedro Jácuaro and Irimbo communities in the rainy season). However, some sites showed “poor quality” and “unsuitable drinking water” related to low pH levels (<5) and high levels of turbidity, color, Fe, Al, Mn, and arsenic. Multivariate statistical analysis techniques (Principal Component and Hierarchical Cluster) and geographic information system (GIS) identify potential sources of water pollution and estimate the geographic extension of parameters with negative effects on human health (mainly in communities without sampling). According to multivariate analysis, the Na⁺/K⁺ ratio and water temperature (22–42 °C) in various sites suggest that the WQI values were affected by geological and geothermal conditions and physical changes between seasons, but were not from anthropogenic activity. The GIS established predictions about the probable spatial distribution of arsenic levels, pH, temperature, acidity, and hardness in the study area, which provides valuable information on these parameters in the communities where the sampling was not carried out. The health risk assessment for dermal contact and ingestion showed that the noncancer risk level exceeded the recommended criteria (HQ > 1) in the rainy season for three target groups. At the same time, the carcinogenic risk (1 × 10⁻³) exceeded the acceptability criterion in the rainy season, which suggests that the As mainly represents a threat to the health of adults, children, and infants. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecological Risk Assessment of Emerging Pollutants in Drinking Water)

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Review

Jump to: Research

15 pages, 1083 KiB

Open AccessReview

Application of Extraction and Determination Based on Deep Eutectic Solvents in Different Types of Environmental Samples

by Yonghua Wang, Na Li, Shengnan Jiang and Xi Chen

Water 2022, 14(1), 46; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/w14010046 - 25 Dec 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3459

Abstract

Water sources are an indispensable resource for human survival. Monitoring the pollution status of the surrounding environment is necessary to protect water sources. Research on the environmental matrix of deep eutectic solvents (DESs) has expanded rapidly because of their high extraction efficiency for various target analytes, controllable synthesis, and versatile structure. Following the synthesis of hydrophobic deep eutectic solvents (HDESs), their application in aqueous matrices broadened greatly. The present review conducted a survey on the pollutant extraction methods based DESs in environmental matrices from two aspects, application methods and matrix types; discussed the potential risk of DESs to the environment and future development trends; and provided some references for researchers to choose DES-based extraction methods for environmental research. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecological Risk Assessment of Emerging Pollutants in Drinking Water)

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