Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Over the last two decades, climate change has become a major environmental and public health concern due to the increase of the mean temperature on the Earth and its consequences on extreme meteorological events such as floods and droughts. These events induce very low or very high river flows that may impair surface water quality, and therefore result in potential health impacts when used for drinking water production. The present study aims at assessing the impact of hydrologic regime on surface water quality with a particular emphasis on total organic carbon (TOC) and nitrate. Water quality data from three French rivers acquired over a 27 years period, from January 1983 to December 2009, show the influence of extreme flows. Variation in TOC and nitrate concentrations showed opposite patterns for the whole range of flow rate (from less than 10% up to more than 100% of the mean flow). Regarding fluxes, TOC increased continuously with flow rate while nitrate was stable for very high discharges. The C/N ratio expressed from TOC and nitrate concentrations showed high values for extreme flows and particularly for very low flow rates, generally in summer, where nitrate is assimilated by biomass. Considering TOC and nitrate fluxes, it is confirmed that the worst situations were encountered for very high flow rates, namely for TOC exportation during surface runoff which was related to heavy rains or floods. These findings are of great importance with regard to the adaptation for drinking water treatment in facing extreme hydrological conditions, of which the frequency is increasing with climate change.
ISSN: 0022-1694

hal-00878009
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00878009
DOI : 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2012.11.006

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD IWA Publishing
Résumé : International audience
Anti-cancer drugs are an important class of pharmaceutical products. Methotrexate (MTX) is a folic acid antagonist used in high doses as antimetabolite in anti-cancer treatment as well as in low doses for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and adults' psoriasis. In the past, several anti-cancer drugs, including methotrexate, have been found in the environment. Their presence in water, especially if used for the production of drinking water, is even in low concentrations of particular interest, due to the risk to retrieve them in the consumed water and their high activity and grave effects. But prior to usage as drinking water, raw waters are treated and chlorination is a common practice in several countries. As such a treatment can lead to the formation of organochlorine in water, the study of the fate of MTX during chlorination in a batch trial was carried out. The reaction was monitored by dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and by fluorescence and UV spectroscopy. Investigation of by-products formed was done with liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS). Under the given experimental conditions, Methotrexate was eliminated rapidly (t1/2 around 21 min). However, DOC elimination was incomplete. Monitoring with LC-MS showed the formation of a monochlorinated transformation product of MTX. In silico analysis of the proposed transformation products for different carcinogenic, mutagenic and genotoxic endpoints with different software platforms provided no clear evidence that the possible transformation products after chlorination might be more toxic than the parent compound. However, since a number of alerts is altered after chlorination, it cannot be excluded that the toxicity of these transformation products might be modulated compared with the parent compound.
ISSN: 0043-1354

hal-01016617
https://hal-univ-rennes1.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01016617
https://hal-univ-rennes1.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01016617/document
https://hal-univ-rennes1.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01016617/file/Monitoringsur methotrexate_final.pdf
DOI : 10.1016/j.watres.2014.03.008