The PharmWater project has reached its next milestone: the collection of water samples has started at five wastewater treatment plants. At each plant, samples are taken from four different points: raw wastewater, treated wastewater, and the receiving watercourse, both before and after the discharge.
This activity, which will last for 18 months, is an important building block of the project’s main objective: developing a common strategy for investigating the presence of pharmaceutical residues in wastewater and surface waters. The analysis of the samples is carried out by the Slovenian NLZOH, which not only handles the sampling and transportation but also analyzes the water samples using modern laboratory techniques—LC-HRMS (Orbitrap) and HPLC-MS/MS systems.
The goal is to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the pharmaceutical compounds present, both in terms of quantity and quality, and to identify region-specific pollutants that may not have been included in previous lists. The results of the measurements will be continuously available and used in the project’s ongoing activities, particularly in evaluating the effectiveness of wastewater treatment technologies and developing the monitoring protocol.
