One year monitoring of pharmaceuticals in aquatic systems: acquisition of data concerning fate and behaviour in surface waters

Occurrence of pharmaceutical products in aquatic systems has been highlighted for few years, showing a potential sanitary and environmental impact on water quality. The present work deals with monitoring of 70 stations located in Loire -Brittany river basin, including surface waters and groundwaters. 40 pharmaceuticals and veterinary products owning to the main therapeutic groups were monitored in Summer 2009 and Winter 2009-2010 in order to document seasonal variability and assess contamination level in French aquatic systems. Two rivers were particularly monitored, with monthly sampling of 4 stations spreaded over the river from upstream to downstream of WWTP discharge, to better understand seasonal variations, fate of pharmaceuticals and impact of WWTP effluent introduction in the river. Results gave a global overview of the pharmaceutical contamination. Frequencies of detection depending on the type of water and the land uses in impacted river basin allow to determine "key pollutants" that can be used as tracers of pharmaceutical pollution, considering on the other hand their persistency or their high reactivity in aquatic systems.