Enormous number of micropollutants can be found in the environment. Especially, during the last twenty years, concern about the micropollutants has increased because usage of these chemicals has considerably increased. Although their concentrations are very low (ng/L or µg/L), impact of these micropollutants on the environment and human health is not known well and might be very dangerous. Personal care products, pesticides, pharmaceutical, endocrine disruptors can be example for the micropollutants. One of the main sources of this micropollutants is wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Indeed, the removal or reduction of micropollutants by conventional WWTPs is ineffective. Therefore, micropollutants reach to the surface water and groundwater resources. With this regard, the purpose of the study is to determine occurrence of micropollutants in the treatment plants, to state the micropollutants whose concentrations must be paid attention in the receiving body and to see impact of these pollutants on the receiving body. For this purpose, occurrence of micropollutants in the WWTPs and their effects to receiving body will be examined. Municipal WWTPs in the Yeşilırmak Basin of Turkey will be analysed according to their processes and effluent concentration. Micropollutants that are exceeding the Environmental Quality Standards (EQS) values will be determined and paid attention because concentrations of them in the receiving body should not be higher than EQS values. Upstream and downstream of the plants will be compared according to micropollutant concentrations to see the impact of the treatment plants on the receiving body. In Turkey, these kinds of studies are very limited due to lack of data. Therefore, this study can be helpful to understand the conditions and effects of the treatment plants in Yeşilırmak Basin. 

By: İrem İnce

Advisor: Prof. Dr. Ülkü Yetiş

Date: 20.03.2019