Investigation of endocrine disrupting chemicals in a drinking water work located in Songhua river basin

Solid phase extraction-high performance liquid chromatography was used for simultaneously determination of 13 endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in water samples taken from each treatment unit of a drinking water treatment plant located in Songhua River basin. Results show that steroid estrogens exist in all water samples except for tap water, varying at a level of 4-44 ng·L^-1. Four of phthalate acid esters (PAEs), bisphenol A (BPA) and 3 alkylphenols (APs) are detected almost in all samples with concentration ranging from 2 to 163760 ng·L^-1. The most abundant EDCs are di-butyl phthalate (DBP) and di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP). Results also demonstrate that the coagulation-sedimentation process plays a dominant role in the removal of EDCs in the plant with an average removal efficiency of 63%, though the contents of few EDCs in its effluent are higher than those in the influent. Processes of sand filtration and chlorination are unstable, and only several of EDCs investigated are removed partially. In addition, the concentrations of most EDCs left in the effluent of the plant are increased after pipe delivering. It verifies that EDCs in drinking water partly come from the release of pipe material for water delivering besides the contaminated source water.