Potential contribution of inorganic ions to whole effluent acute toxicity and genotoxicity during sewage tertiary treatment.

Two acute toxicity tests (luminescent bacteria assay and cladoceran assay) and one genotoxicity test (broad bean assay) were used to evaluate whole effluent toxicity during the standard anion exchange resin-based pilot-scale sewage tertiary treatment that stably achieved significant dissolved organic carbon and inorganic ions reduction. The effect of six representative inorganic ions (i.e., Cl(-), SO4(2-), NO3(-)-N, NO2(-)-N, NH4(+)-N and PO4(3-)-P) on the acute toxicity and genotoxicity was further investigated. Significant whole effluent genotoxicity reduction was observed as an ∼ 57% micronucleated cell frequency reduction and ∼ 46% mitotic index increment during the pilot-scale periods, which should be attributed to significant organic removal since no significant (p ≥ 0.116) increase in genotoxicity was observed with the increase in these ionic concentrations. However, no significant (p ≥ 0.14) reductions were observed for whole effluent acute toxicity using two acute toxicity assays during the pilot-scale periods, and these inorganic ions, especially NH4(+)-N, contributed considerably to the acute toxicity. Based on Pearson correlation coefficients, whole effluent acute toxicity showed significant positive (p < 0.001, r ≥ 0.758) correlations with the NH4(+)-N concentration. Two optimal models were finally developed using step-wise multiple linear regression to predict the whole effluent acute toxicity via NH4(+)-N concentrations.