A new report, prepared by Ramboll Deutschland GmbH, shares new findings on the expected impact of data collection and assessment for micropollutants in wastewater. A comparison with the EU Commission’s October 2022 Impact Assessment report indicates that the large number of chemical substances falling under the definition of micropollutant originate from many different sources, not just the pharmaceutical and cosmetic sectors. According to the planned revision of the EU Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (UWWTD), these are the only two sectors impacted by the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme. According to the Ramboll report, the concentration of detected micropollutants mostly falls within the ppb to low ppm range, varying significantly depending on various factors.
Substances of pharmaceutical origin were mostly found in the low ppb or even ppt (ng/l) range. The study also highlights that, in waste water analysis, wide chemical target screening programs (>200 analytes) may not necessarily capture the full picture. From this perspective, pharmaceuticals are the most intensively studied group of substances classified as micropollutants, which could lead to other sources and micropollutants being underrepresented. Therefore, it would be necessary to identify all known and unknown micropollutants from all sources, using a combination of non-targeted and suspect screening approaches, as well as quantitative analysis (e.g. by targeted methods).