LIFE Fitting Guide of best practices. Monitoring & removal of micropollutants, antimicrobial resistance and other contaminants of emerging concern in urban wastewater treatment.

Abstract

LIFE Fitting has evaluated, at full scale, operational strategies to enhance the removal of micropollutants and other chemical contaminants of emerging concern (CECs, mostly pharmaceutically active compounds) as well as bacterial antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in wastewater treatment and developed tools for smart operation and monitoring of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). The project involved an extensive monitoring and field test in three large WWTPs (each serving more than 100 000 population equivalent) in Portugal, being analysed over 60 organic CECs and microorganisms relevant to public health, such as antibiotic-resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes. The rivers receiving the treated effluents were also studied for water quality and dilution ratios.