Assessment of emerging contaminants in the l'Albufera Natural Park (Valencia, Spain)

Abstract

Wetlands play a critical role in maintaining natural cycles and supporting a wide range of biodiversity. They regulate water quantity, groundwater recharge, and can contribute to regulating floods and the impacts of storms, and provide the fish and rice. The Albufera Natural Park is one of the most representative and valuable coastal wetlands in the Valencia Region and the Mediterranean basin. Covering an area of 21.120 hectares, it is located just 10 km from Valencia city. The surrounding population (> 1600000 inhabitants) has introduced a number of emerging contaminants that threats this wetland. In this study, 42 drugs of abuse and 45 pharmaceuticals have been studied in influents and effluents of 10 Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTP), 7 irrigation channels and the Lake of L’Albufera de Valencia (Valencia, Spain). Three matrices were analyzed water, sediment and biota. The isolation and concentration were carried out by solid-phase extraction (SPE) and the contaminants were determined by ultra-high pressure liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometer (UHPLC-MS/MS). Cocaine as its major metabolite (benzoylecgonine), followed by cannabis as its ?9-Tetrahydrocannabinolic acid, were the main drugs detected in water samples. Regard to pharmaceuticals, caffeine and ibuprofen were the main compounds obtained in these samples. Nevertheless, other pharmaceuticals were detected at high concentrations in all samples. In spite of this, and its non-complete removal in WWTPs, nowadays there are not enough knowledge about how the presence of these pollutants can affect to aquatic ecosystems, and specially living beings.