Over the last decade the interest for water reuse to augment drinking water resources has been constantly growing due to water scarcity, particularly in south western US. However, considering the adverse effect of wastewater effluent on aquatic species, potential risk of drinking water reuse for human health must be carefully addressed. For this purpose the implementation of bioassays is required to provide an integrated measurement of potential biological activities caused by one or a mixture of unknown compounds. While estrogenicity is commonly considered, the present study reports significant and unexpected glucocorticoid receptor activity in two wastewater effluents. While UV/ H2O2 treatment could efficiently lower this biological response, ozonation and chlorination had basically no effect. To further identify the responsible chemical(s), bioassays have been complemented by samples fractionation through HPLC and high resolution mass spectrometry (QTOF) analysis.

Identification of compound(s) causing glucocorticoid activity in wastewater effluents

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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