Survey of estrogenic activity of Songhua river water and drinking water of Harbin

Solid phase extraction/yeast two-hybrid system was used to investigate estrogenic effects of Songhua River water of Harbin reach and drinking water of Harbin. Results show that the estrogenic activities of Songhua River water in summer and autumn are 528-965 pg·L^-1 estradiol equivalents(EEQs), and the estrogenic activity of source water is in a high level. The removal rates of estrogenic activity are 34.6%-50.5% in a waterworks of Harbin. It reveals that estrogenic pollutants in source water are not efficiently removed in the plant. As a result, a level of 298-718 pg·L^-1 of estrogenic activity is left in the effluent of the plant. Results also demonstrate that coagulation-sedimentation process is the most stable treatment in the removal of estrogenic activity among the three water treatment processes applied in the plant, with a removal efficiency of 11.4% -26.1% which accounts for 32.9% -69.0% of the total removal. Processes of sand filtration and chlorination are not stable, and estrogenic activities of their effluents sometimes are higher than those in their influents. Moreover, the estrogenic activity of tap water is increased to the maximum of 44.9% in comparison with that of the effluent of the plant due to the secondary contamination produced in the process of pipe delivering. The estrogenic activities of tap water of Harbin are 347-1362 pg·L^-1 measured in seven sampling events, with a mean value of 738 pg·L^-1.