Importance of domestic releases in urban sewer networks: case of alkylphenols, phthalates and parabens in the Paris agglomeration

International audienceIn order to protect the aquatic environment, minimizing the introduction of hazardous substances seems to be an interesting complement to the implementation of new water-treatment technologies. Some European and French regulations (Directive 2000/60/EC, directive 2003/53/CE, French decree of 2015 July 21 st) encourage the development of action plans contributing to the reduction of emissions of pollutants by limiting the flows arriving at wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). A lever of action that seems natural to communities is the control of emissions from industries and agriculture in the watersheds under consideration. This paper focuses on another source of contribution to pollutant flows that is not necessarily taken into account: domestic wastewater. In the case of the Paris conurbation, heavily urbanized and poorly industrialized, the aim of our work was to compare the contamination of domestic wastewater with that of industrial wastewater for three families of micropollutants: alkylphenols, phthalates and parabens that are toxics for aquatic environments and classified as endocrine-disrupting compounds (Oehlmann et al. 2009; Haman et al. 2015). Then, we tried to identify ways to reduce the contamination of domestic wastewater. First the origin of the contamination was investigated through greywater and finally the impact of regulation and/or changing of practices on the contamination of wastewater were assessed