Assessment of organic contaminant fate in waste water treatment plants I: Selected compounds and physicochemical properties

An extensive and comprehensive literature review has been conducted for com pounds which we hypothesise could be present in sludge and maintain their i ntegrity following application to agricultural land. The following compound s have been selected for review; chlorinated paraffins, quintozene, bromina ted diphenyl ethers, polychlorinated naphthalenes, polydimethylsiloxanes, c hloronitrobenzenes and a range of biologically active and pharmaceutical co mpounds. All have received interest as a result of their persistence and/or toxicity in environmental media. Physicochemical property information has also been compiled and/or calculated. In this way, an accompanying paper wi ll attempt to predict compound fate in waste water treatment plants (WWTPs) and assess likely transfers from soil/plants to grazing livestock. These p apers describe a first attempt to predict the fate of these classes of comp ounds in the environment and prioritise those of greatest concern. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.