Sources of Contaminants of Emerging Concern in Groundwater of Barcelona Urban Area

Abstract

Groundwater is a vital resource for the development of urban areas, where the problem focuses on the quantity and on the quality of this freshwater resource. Barcelona is a good example as because currently groundwater is used for irrigation of parks and gardens and street cleaning due to its poor quality as drinking water source. Among the pollutants found in groundwater, of special interest are contaminants of emerging concern (CEC), as they pose a high risk to the aquatic environment and human health. The behaviour, spatial distribution and processes that control them in the aquatic environment are still uncertain and most of them are unregulated. In this paper we study the inputs and processes controlling the hydrochemistry of Barcelona urban groundwater with special emphasis on the CEC. We selected 29 CEC that were detected at high concentrations of up to 1 µg L−1 (e.g. gemfibrozil, benzotriazole, among others). Towards the higher zones we identify groundwater with relative low mineralization more proximate to the natural recharge composition, while towards the urban area the anthropic inputs are evident (e.g. nitrate concentrations range from 50 to 200 mg L−1). Near the Besòs river there is a clear contribution from this superficial water highly polluted, mostly from wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) discharges, and reducing conditions. The main contributor of CEC pollution in groundwater was the river-aquifer interaction (Besòs river), while towards the urban area it might come from sewage seepage and probably a minor input from urban runoff. The redox state of these waters seems to control the fate and occurrence of several of these CEC. The limitations of this study are restricted to a single sampling campaign, therefore these results should be corroborated with other sampling campaigns, including the seasonal variations, which would allow establishing more robust conclusions.