Micropollutants in stormwater runoff – Load estimation at city scale

Micropollutant concentrations found in stormwater runoff were extrapolated to annual loads at the scale of the city of Berlin (impervious connected area of ~170 km2). Extrapolation was done by city structure, i.e., it was assumed that concentration patterns found in one of five specific city structure types is representative for every area of this structure type. Preliminary results show that micropollutants of several substance types can enter Berlin surface waters at loads in the order of kg/yr via stormwater runoff: plasticizers (e.g., sum of Di-iso-decylphthalate and Di-iso-nonylphthalate at 770 kg/yr), flame retardants (e.g., tris(2-butoxyethyl) phosphate (TBEP) at 89 kg/yr), biocides from different sources (e.g., Glyphosate at 17 kg/yr and Mecoprop at 30 kg/yr), vulcanizing accelerator benzothiazole (as sum of benzothiazole and metabolites methylthiobenzothiazole and hydroxybenzothiazole at 65 kg/yr) and combustion byproduct polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons PAH 16 (sum of 16 EPA PAH at 107 kg/yr). These loads are in a similar order of magnitude as micropollutants that enter Berlin surface waters via (treated) sewage, such as pharmaceutical residues carbamazepine and ibuprofen with estimated annual loads of 436 kg/yr and 35 kg/yr, respectively.

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