Ecotoxicity and antibiotic resistance of wastewater during transport in an urban sewage network

Urban wastewater (UWW) management usually entails biological and physicochemical monitoring due to its potential impact on the quality of the receiving environment. A major component of a sewage system is the pipe network leading the water to the treatment plant. Up to now, few studies have been conducted on the diverse phenomena that may affect the characteristics of the water during its transportation. In this study, ecotoxicity and potential antibiotic resistance were used in a global method to assess the change of UWW quality in a sewage system and determine if sewer pipes can act as a bioreactor spread. Three bioassays were conducted to assess the ecotoxicity of the samples and the concentration and relative abundance of two classes of integrons (as a proxy for antibiotic resistance) were measured. The results of the bioassay battery do not show a pattern, despite the fact that differences were noticeable between upstream and downstream samples. Antibiotic resistance appeared to decrease during transport in the pipe as the concentration and relative abundance of integrons decreased during several campaigns. This result should be confirmed in other sewer networks but already provides useful information for the management of urban sewage system.