Occurrence and in-stream attenuation of wastewater-derived pharmaceuticals in Iberian rivers
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Amultitude of pharmaceuticals enter surface waters via discharges of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), and
many raise environmental and health concerns. Chemical fate models predict their concentrations using estimates
of mass loading, dilution and in-stream attenuation. However, current comprehension of the attenuation rates remains
a limiting factor for predictive models.We assessed in-stream attenuation of 75 pharmaceuticals in 4 river
segments, aiming to characterize in-stream attenuation variability among different pharmaceutical compounds,
as well as among river segments differing in environmental conditions. Our study revealed that in-streamattenuation
was highly variable among pharmaceuticals and river segments and that none of the considered pharmaceutical
physicochemical and molecular properties proved to be relevant in determining the mean attenuation rates.
Instead, the octanol–water partition coefficient (Kow) influenced the variability of rates among river segments, likely
due to its effect on sorption to sediments and suspended particles, and therefore influencing the balance between
the different attenuation mechanisms (biotransformation, photolysis, sorption, and volatilization). The magnitude
of themeasured attenuation rates urges scientists to consider themas important as dilutionwhen aiming to predict
concentrations in freshwater ecosystems