Organic contaminants of emerging concern (OCECs) in urban aquifers affected by geothermal exploitations
- 1Department of Geosciences, Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research, Barcelona, Spain (anna.jurado@idaea.csic.es)
- 2Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), Berlin, Germany.
- 3ON-HEALTH, Department of Environmental Chemistry, Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research, Barcelona, Spain
- 4Water Science and Engineering Department, IHE-Delft Institute for Water Education, Delft, Netherlands
- 5Water Resource Section, Department of Civil Engineering and Geoscience, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
Water shortage is expected to exacerbate because of the increase pressure on water resources due to climate change and the growing population. It is deemed necessary to take advantage of all the available freshwater resources to cover the growing demand, especially in urban areas. However, urban aquifers are commonly contaminated by a wide range of organic contaminants of emerging concern (OCECs). OCECs, which comprise natural and synthetic compounds, are potentially hazardous to the environment and human health. Therefore, the processes controlling the behaviour of OCECs must be investigated to determine when and how the urban resources can be used safely and to design remediation strategies against them. The removal rate of OCECs depends on the temperature and redox conditions of groundwater that may be affected by anthropogenic activities like the exploitation of the geothermal potential of aquifers. The behaviour of some OCECs has been investigated in the context of managed aquifer recharge (MAR). However, the water range in MAR is lower than that expected around geothermal exploitations, and the behaviour of OCECs under similar conditions to that found around geothermal facilities should be evaluated. We have investigated the removal of 12 OCECs reported in the aquifers of Barcelona (Spain) by using batch experiments under different redox conditions and temperatures (25°C and 35°C). The results show that the removal rate of OCECs depends on the temperature, suggesting that the impact of geothermal exploitations must be considered when investigating the fate and evolution of OCECs in urban aquifers. Unexpectedly, it was observed that the removal rate could also decrease with the temperature, which may be related to the proliferation of different communities of bacteria depending on the temperature. Overall, this investigation supports the idea that it is possible to design geothermal facilities to promote the removal of OCECs.
How to cite: Jurado, A., Villa, M. A., Teixidó, M., Montemurro, N., Pérez, S., Foppen, J. W., and Pujades, E.: Organic contaminants of emerging concern (OCECs) in urban aquifers affected by geothermal exploitations , EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 24–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-12959, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-12959, 2023.
