On inorganic tracers of wastewater treatment plant discharges along the Marque River (Northern France)

Increase of water quality in aquatic systems has become a hot button issue in recent decades. However, with the aim to implement an effective remediation strategy, the first step is to identify the sources of diffuse and point-source pollution using several tracers. In urban areas, B isotopes, Gd enrichment, Cl− or carbamazepine concentrations can be used as wastewater treatment plant tracers. In this study, a focus was made on the quantification of a wide variety of inorganic compounds (elements, ions, isotopic ratios) all along the Marque River, a small stream located in Northern France receiving effluents coming from seven wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). The objectives were (i) to determine the importance of the WWTPs discharge during low water events, (ii) to assess the efficiency of conventional tracers in quantifying the contribution of the WWTPs and (iii) to investigate new potential tracers less commonly used. The results have shown, through statistical analyses ANOVA (Analysis Of Variance) tests, PCA (Principal Component Analysis) and contribution calculations, that the WWTPs discharges strongly impact the water composition of all the watercourse and particularly during the first 6 km. However, due to high discharges of wastewaters not always well treated, some classical indicators (e.g. B, Rb/Sr) have shown limitations when used alone. The use of a set of relevant tracers including alkali metals could therefore be one solution for overcoming such a problem. Finally, other indicators like Rb/B or Gd/Pt ratios may also be a way to tackle this issue; they are indeed promising to discriminate the source of wastewaters. [Display omitted] •The Marque River is highly impacted by WWTPs especially in its first 6 km.•The contribution of WWTPs could be skewed using classical tracers.•Concentrations of Ca, K, Na, Rb were found suitable to determine WWTPs contribution.•Gd/Pt ratio could be a good indicator of the impact of WWTP discharges into the river.