Screening of priority pollutants in urban stormwater: Innovative methodology

The implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) 2000/60/CE requires Member States to gain a better understanding of priority pollutants entering surfaces waters. All kinds of effluents as well as urban water (wastewater and stormwater) are concerned. So, studies have put the light on direct discharges of these substances to the aquatic environment, since hazardous pollutants, listed or not in the WFD, could be released to a watercourse by stormwater. Moreover, data about priority substances in urban stormwater are scarce so far worldwide. Till now, monitoring of priority pollutants usually referred to analyses carried out on bulk samples without any discrimination between dissolved and particulate phases. This paper describes an innovative methodology which allows not only the determination of contamination level in both the dissolved and particulate phases of hazardous pollutants, but also all the precautions that must be taken from sampling to analysis. In order to include specific urban pollutants, the WFD list of 33 priority pollutants was scientifically extended to 88 individual substances. All samples will be collected, and monitored for these urban pollutants, by automatic samplers from three storm drainage systems in Paris and its suburb, whose watershed land use differs.