Historical perspective of heavy metals contamination (Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Pb, Zn) in the Seine River basin (France) following a DPSIR approach (1950-2005).

The Driver-Pressures-State-Impact-Response approach is applied to heavy metals in the Seine River catchment (65,000 km(2); 14 million people of which 10 million are aggregated within Paris megacity; 30% of French industrial and agricultural production). The contamination pattern at river mouth is established on the particulate material at different time scales: 1930-2000 for floodplain cores, 1980-2003 for suspended particulate matter (SPM) and bed-sediments, 1994-2003 for atmospheric fallout and annual flood deposits. The Seine has been among the most contaminated catchments with maximum contents recorded at 130 mg kg(-1) for Cd, 24 for Hg, 558 for Pb, 1620 for Zn, 347 for Cu, 275 for Cr and 150 for Ni.

Trace metal speciation and fluxes within a major French wastewater treatment plant: impact of the successive treatments stages.

Seven metals (Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ni and Pb) were monitored at the Seine-Aval wastewater treatment plant during 6 sampling campaigns in April 2004. Particulate and dissolved metals have been measured in 24h composite samples at each treatment stage (primary settling, secondary activated sludge and tertiary flocculation by FeCl(3)). In addition, the diffusive gradient in thin film technique (DGT) was used to determine the dissolved inert and labile metal fraction.