Related EU Projects

Drinking water quality is potentially threatened by the release of chemicals that we are producing and using. If these chemicals are water soluble and poorly degradable or if poorly degradable and polar transformation products are formed from them, then these chemicals may specifically be of concern.

PROMOTE focuses on persistent, mobile organic contaminants (PMOC). PMOC are highly polar compounds and as such likely to occur in the water cycle and in raw waters used for drinking water production. At the same time their physicochemical properties make them very challenging to analyze. Consequently, analytical methods are insufficiently developed and little is known upon their occurrence in environmental and drinking waters. PROMOTE follows two strategies to identify and monitor PMOC: (a) developing and applying analytical methods for screening of water samples for PMOC and (b) selection and prioritization of candidate substances based on REACH data and developing analytical methods for their quantitative analysis.

The developed analytical methods will be applied to representative samples from five European river basins, to WWTP effluents, to groundwater samples and to raw waters used for drinking water production. For PMOC occurring in raw waters or likely to occur in such waters PROMOTE will study the potential of different drinking water treatment strategies to remove PMOC. PMOC will be prioritized in terms of their emission sources and removal options and adequate mitigation methods at reasonable effort will be proposed. This will include improved treatment processes for compounds emitted only locally, changes in the use profile and regulation within the REACH legislation. Widely distributed PMOC of environmental or health concern may also be candidates for the watch list of the WFD.

Publications 

Screening for polar chemicals in water by trifunctional mixed-mode liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (2017) - http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.6b05135

Ranking REACH registered neutral, ionizable and ionic organic chemicals based on their aquatic persistency and mobility (2017) - http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2017/em/c7em00158d#!divAbstract

Halogenated methanesulfonic acids: A new class of organic micropollutants in the water cycle (2016) - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0043135416304146

Mind the gap: Persistent and mobile organic compounds – water contaminants that slip through (2016) - http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.est.6b03338

Book Chapter

High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry Identification of Micropollutants Transformation Products Produced During Water Disinfection With Chlorine and Related Chemicals (2016)

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166526X16300071

Software tools

PREGA is a freeware tool for off-line optimization of HPLC separation, which is able to simplify method development in several chromatographic modes, including Reversed-Phase or Mixed-Mode HPLC - http://www.usc.es/gcqprega/index_archivos/prega.htm

Several posters

Results and Publications section on http://www.promote-water.eu/

Emerging environmental substances are not necessarily new chemicals. They are substances that have often long been present in the environment but whose presence and significance are only now being elucidated. NORMAN has identified a list of the currently most frequently discussed emerging substances and emerging pollutants. These substances are selected by the NORMAN Prioritisation Working Group, based on citations in the scientific literature, and taking into account the definition of "emerging substances" and "emerging pollutants" given in the NORMAN Glossary of terms.

NORMAN systematically collects in the EMPODAT database monitoring data and information on effects and hazardous properties for these substances. On the basis of this information, the substances are assigned to priority action categories by the NORMAN Prioritisation Working Group.  "Emerging substances" can be defined as substances that have been detected in the environment, but which are currently not included in routine monitoring programmes at EU level and whose fate, behaviour and (eco)toxicological effects are not well understood. "Emerging pollutants" can be defined as pollutants that are currently not included in routine monitoring programmes at the European level and which may be candidates for future regulation, depending on research on their (eco)toxicity, potential health effects and public perception and on monitoring data regarding their occurrence in the various environmental compartments. Examples from the LIST OF EMERGING SUBSTANCES are surfactants, flame retardants, pharmaceuticals and personal care products, gazoline additives and their degradation products, biocides, polar pesticides and their degradation products and various proven or suspected endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs). The NORMAN experts regularly revise the list of emerging substances.

Working Groups – http://www.norman-network.net/?q=Working%20Groups

Success stories – http://www.norman-network.net/?q=Success%20Stories

Publications – http://www.norman-network.net/?q=Publications

Topics and activities – http://www.norman-network.net/?q=node/15

Workshops and events – http://www.norman-network.net/?q=node/20

The Emerging Risks of Chemicals in the Environment programme aims to conduct research to predict how the environment and its functioning will respond to chemical exposure. The anticipated high level outcome is a transformation in the way chemical risk assessment is considered; to move towards an ecosystems approach with greater ecological relevance.

There are many tens of thousands of chemicals that we use in our homes, industries and food systems and the market is growing by about 2,000 new compounds per year. Chemical use is dynamic; looking to the future, the changing demographics of a globally rising population (and, in developed countries, an increasingly ageing and medicated population) will lead to more drugs discharged through the water systems; changing agricultural practices, energy and material needs are likely to lead to new effluents and pressures; new pest and disease pressures and increasing resistance to products will alter use of agrochemical and veterinary products; green chemistry has the potential to drive the development of novel chemistries in the future; and a focus on recycling and reuse will change how we use products and manage waste streams.

The persistence and fate of chemicals entering the environment are controlled by complex interactions with natural processes. Ecosystems are exposed to combinations of chemical mixtures and other environmental stressors and environmental changes. The potential impacts of exposure on individual organisms has been the focus of considerable research, yet understanding of dynamic, complex and long-term exposure and the outcomes and implications for critical ecosystems and the services they provide, remain uncertain and difficult to predict.

Furthermore, there is ongoing loss of biodiversity and other evidence for environmental degradation and it is not known what contribution chemicals make towards this. Human exposure to chemicals via the environment (such as through drinking water or the food chain) can result in unpredicted but important impacts, and appreciation of compounds to which humans are sensitive is important when trying to understand and manage chemicals in the environment.

This research programme will deliver fundamental process understanding underpinning chemical behaviour and impact in the environment and a predictive capability to support chemicals management, in three interlinked research questions:

1. What are the impacts of chemicals on populations, ecosystems and ecosystem services?

2. What are the risks from chemical mixtures?

3. How important are chemical stressors in relation to other stressors?

Chemicals in the Environment scoping workshop – http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/funded/programmes/chemicals/chemicals-workshop/

The term ‘emerging contaminants’ is generally used to refer to compounds previously not considered or known to be significant to groundwater (in terms of distribution and/or concentration) which are now being more widely detected. As analytical techniques improve, previously undetected organic micropollutants are being observed in the aqueous environment. Many emerging contaminants remain unregulated, but the number of regulated contaminants will continue to grow slowly over the next several decades. There is a wide variety of sources and pathways for these compounds to enter the environment and these include agriculture and urban areas. Some of these contaminants can have human or ecological health effects and there is a need for better understanding of their fate in environmental systems. This report provides a short review of the types of organic micropollutants which can be found in the aqueous environment. These include nanomaterials, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, industrial additives and by-products, personal care products and fragrances, water treatment by-products, flame/fire retardants and surfactants, as well as caffeine and nicotine metabolites and hormones. Many of the compounds are relatively small polar molecules which are not effectively removed by conventional drinking water treatment using activated carbon. Pesticides and some industrial compounds are presently covered by the Water Framework Directive, the Groundwater Regulations and the Drinking Water Directive. Additional parameters, such as bisphenol A and nonyl-phenol are anticipated to be covered by revisions to the Drinking Water Directive. Others are currently unregulated. In order to assess the hazards presented by such compounds, information on usage, persistence, leachability and a robust sensitive analytical method is required. The UK metaldehyde problem was not originally discovered due to lack of an analytical method and was exacerbated by recalcitrance in water treatment. For many pesticides these requirements are fulfilled and an assessment of risk of leaching to groundwater can be made. However, for pesticide metabolites this information can be sparse and for compounds such as pharmaceuticals it can be lacking. A simple hazard assessment for currently approved pesticides was made from information on UK usage, persistence, sorption to soil carbon and published leaching indices. The following compounds were assessed as having the greatest potential for leaching to water: 2,4-D, amidosulfuron, bentazone, clopyralid, dicamba, florasulam, fosthiazate, imazaquin, iodosulfuron-methyl-sodium, maleic hydrazide, MCPA, MCPP-P, metribuzin, metsulfuronmethyl, quinmerac, oxamyl, and triclopyr with a further 46 also having potential. Of these, 19 had an octanol/water partition coefficient (Kow) less than that of metaldehyde and therefore are likely to be incompletely removed by water treatment. A simple assessment for pesticide metabolites, based only on organic carbon/water partition coefficient (Koc) and persistence data, in this study gave results which agreed in principle with other studies. The different approaches indicate that the metabolites of chlorothalonil, cyanazine, diflufenican, flufenacet, iodosulfuron-methyl, metaldehyde, metazachlor and metsulfuron-methyl are likely to pose the greatest risk to drinking water. In many cases these metabolites are derived from parents which have a lesser risk. Other organic micropollutants, such as pharmaceuticals, cannot as yet be assessed in the same way due to a lack of persistence data since the majority of persistence studies have been directed at water treatment. A range of organic micropollutants from urban settings have been detected in ground and surface water. Commonly detected compounds include: bisphenol A, OR/11/013 viii carbamazepine, galaxolide, ibuprofen, iopamidol, phthalates, phenyl ethoxylates, and sulfamethoxazole. Case studies show that a small number of contaminants may be used to characterise the contaminant loading and also be used to assess the migration pathways in urban areas. Data interpreted by BGS from the Environment Agency’s monitoring programme for organic pollutants indicates that the 30 most frequently detected compounds comprise both established and emerging compounds and include a number of polyaromatic hydrocarbons, petroleum compounds, triazine herbicides, chlorinated solvents, degradation products and THMs, caffeine, DEET and industrial compounds such as bisphenol A and tributyl phosphate. Specific determinands include a range of currently licensed and phased out pesticides with a few metabolites, pharmaceuticals including carbamazepine and triclosan, caffeine, nicotine and food additives and alkyl phosphates. These data exhibit hot spots which may indicate possible research areas. Future research should focus on a compound identified in the literature and detected by Environment Agency monitoring. Possible topics could be a study of migration through the unsaturated zone. In many cases the mechanism for migration of emerging contaminants from the surface to groundwater is very unclear.

Final report – http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/14557/1/OR11013.pdf

The water and waste water sector is facing tremendous challenges to assure safe, cost-effective and sustainable water supply and sanitation services. DEMEAU promotes the uptake of knowledge, prototypes and practices from previous EU research enabling the water cycle sector to face emerging pollutants and thus securing water and waste water services and public health. The project exploits four groups of promising technologies from previous EU research: Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR), hybrid ceramic membrane filtration, hybrid advanced oxidation processes, bioassays. Exploitation takes place through action research with universities, research institutions, innovative SME’s, launching water utilities and policy makers.

Essential in the DEMEAU approach is the cooperation with water utilities that have committed to act as launching customer for the selected technologies. Existing and improved performance assessment methodologies will be used to benchmark the novel technologies against existing ones. This is to demonstrate the suitability and cost-effectiveness of the demonstrated technologies. Demonstration sites at launching utilities act as transfer points for the technologies and will generate market opportunities for the SME’s involved.
To foster a broader impact and market penetration of the technologies, DEMEAU seeks cooperation with relevant policy makers, regulators and standardization bodies on Member State and European level in order to address barriers and promoters for the implementation.

A considerable percentage (39%) of the total requested EC contribution is allocated to SME’s.

Result in Brief – http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/159932_en.html

Report Summaries – http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/182187_en.html

Final Report – http://cordis.europa.eu/docs/results/308/308339/final1-20160229-demeau-final-report.pdf

SOLUTIONS will deliver a conceptual framework for the evidence-based development of environmental and water policies. This will integrate innovative chemical and effect-based monitoring tools with a full set of exposure, effect and risk models and assessment options. Uniquely, SOLUTIONS taps (i) expertise of leading European scientists of major FP6/FP7 projects on chemicals in the water cycle, (ii) access to the infrastructure necessary to investigate the large basins of Danube and Rhine as well as relevant Mediterranean basins as case studies, and (iii) innovative approaches for stakeholder dialogue and support. In particular, International River Commissions, EC working groups and water works associations will be directly supported with consistent guidance for the early detection, identification, prioritization, and abatement of chemicals in the water cycle. A user-friendly tool providing access to a set of predictive models will support stakeholders to improve management decisions, benefiting from the wealth of data generated from monitoring and chemical registration. SOLUTIONS will give a specific focus on concepts and tools for the impact and risk assessment of complex mixtures of emerging pollutants, their metabolites and transformation products. Analytical and effect-based screening tools will be applied together with ecological assessment tools for the identification of toxicants and their impacts. Beyond state-of-the-art monitoring and management tools will be elaborated allowing risk identification for aquatic ecosystems and human health. The SOLUTIONS approach will provide transparent and evidence-based lists of River Basin Specific Pollutants for the case study basins and support the review of the list of WFD priority pollutants.

Report Summaries –

http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/171679_en.html

http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/197191_en.html

Open access publications –

http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5571148

http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5136570

http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4732001

EDA-EMERGE aims to train a new generation of young scientists in the interdisciplinary techniques required to meet the major challenges in the monitoring, assessment and management of toxic pollution in European river basins considering the enormous complexity of contamination, effects and cause-effect relationships. By integrating innovative mode-of-action based biodiagnostic tools including in vitro tests, transgenic organisms and “omics” techniques with powerful fractionation and cutting edge analytical and computational structure elucidation tools, a new generation of effect directed analysis (EDA) approaches will be developed for the identification of toxicants in European surface and drinking waters. Innovative method development by young researchers at major universities, research centres and private companies will be closely interlinked with a joint European demonstration program and higher tier EDA and extensive training courses. EDA-EMERGE ESRs will learn to organise and run international and interdisciplinary sampling and monitoring campaigns and benefit from the expertise of one of the most experienced private companies in this field. Strong networking between academia, the private sector and leading regulators in the field of river basin management and pollution management ensures the relevance of the research for practice and excellent employment opportunities for EDA-EMERGE ESRs. The combination of cutting edge science with training in multiple complementary (soft) skills offered with a strong emphasis on commercial exploitation and media competence will further enhance employability of well-trained ESRs not only in research and academia but far beyond. An internationally composed advisory board will introduce new perspectives of monitoring, assessment and management of emerging pollutants within and outside of Europe.

Result in Brief – New solutions for water pollution - http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/151550_en.html

EDA-EMERGE Report Summary - http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/184180_en.html

Open access publications –

http://publications.rwth-aachen.de/record/673445

http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00347/45846/45498.pdf