Risk Prioritization of Pesticides in Wastewater ABased on Concentrations and Contaminant Properties

The increasing food demand in parallel with the growing population requires additional needs for increasing the productivity of food products. Pesticides are chemicals that have been used for many years to reduce crop losses by killing pests. However, due   to their toxicity, pesticides can be toxic to living organisms as well as other organisms, including air, water, soil and crops. In addition, these chemicals transported from the target area cause environmental pollution. As a result, the carried pesticides also reach the wastewater treatment plants. In this study, prioritization was made with the scoring method based on the concentration, treatment efficiency, bioaccumulation and toxicity of pesticide  detected in  the  Kayseri Advanced Biological Wastewater  Treatment  Plant .  While the prioritization study was carried out, 19 pesticides  analyzed at the  influent  and effluent  of the wastewater treatment plant were included in the scope of the research. The measured pesticide types were ranked by scoring method using 4 criteria and the pesticide with the highest score was determined.  According to the results,  heptachlor-exo-epoxide received the highest score. This pesticide type received the highest 5 points from all 4 score types and finally received 20 points.   The effects of these pollutants on the receiving environment need to be specially assessed.