# Record of trace organic contaminants in a river sediment core: From historical wastewater management to historical use

Thomas Thiebault, Pierre Labadie, Anthony Foucher, Jean-Sébastien Barbier, Fabrice Alliot, Thibaut Soubise, Patrick Pardon, Hélène Budzinski, Elie Dhivert, O. Evrard, et al.

► To cite this version:

Thomas Thiebault, Pierre Labadie, Anthony Foucher, Jean-Sébastien Barbier, Fabrice Alliot, et al. Record of trace organic contaminants in a river sediment core: From historical wastewater management to historical use. 19th International Conference on Chemistry and the Environment, ICCE-2025, European Chemical Society, Serbian Chemical Society, Jun 2025, Belgrade, Serbia. pp.117. insu-05109170

HAL Id: insu-05109170

https://insu.hal.science/insu-05109170v1

Submitted on 16 Jun 2025

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access
archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci-
entific research documents, whether they are pub-
lished or not. The documents may come from
teaching and research institutions in France or
abroad, or from public or private research centers.

L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est
destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents
scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non,
émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de
recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires
publics ou privés.

<figure><img src="image_1.png" /></figure>

Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
# Historical record of contaminants of emerging concern in a river sediment core: tracing the impact of regulatory changes?

T. Thiebault¹*, P. Labadie², A. Foucher³, J.-S. Barbier³, F. Alliot¹, T. Soubise², P. Pardon², H. Budzinski², E. Dhivert⁴, O. Evrard³ and S. Ayrault³

¹EPHE, PSL Univ., Sorbonne Univ., CNRS, UMR 7619 METIS, F-75005, Paris, France

²Univ. Bordeaux, CNRS, Bordeaux INP, EPOC, UMR 5805, F-33600 Pessac, France

³Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (LSCE-IPSL), Université Paris-Saclay, UMR 8212 (CEA-CNRS-UVSQ), F-91190 Gif-sur-Yvette, France

⁴Université de Lyon, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CNRS, ENTPE, UMR 5023 LEHNA, F-69518, Vaulx-en-Velin, France

thomas.thiebault@ephe.psl.eu*

The occurrence of 76 contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) belonging to different classes (pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and PFAS) was investigated in a river sediment core taken from the Seine River downstream of Paris, France. Given that CECs have been ubiquitous since the 1950s, although they have only been studied by river stakeholders since the 1990s, sediment archives provide a unique record of their spatial and temporal trends [1]. Radionuclide-dated core samples reveal contamination across all chemical classes, with an initial increase in contaminant concentration and diversity following their market authorization, followed by a gradual decrease in total contamination since the 2000s. The timing of this decrease varies depending on the chemical class and specific molecules, despite an overall increase in the number of detected compounds.

<figure><img src="image_2.png" /></figure>

This overall decline may have been strongly influenced by regulatory changes that primarily targeted priority substances, i.e., the most problematic molecules. Another major factor is the overall improvement in wastewater collection and treatment since the 1980s, which has limited the impact of point-source contaminants. By reconstructing the initial contamination levels and their subsequent evolution in response to regulatory changes and wastewater management improvements, sediment archives serve as an essential tool for assessing the historical contamination of river systems and evaluating the real impact of environmental regulations and technological advancements.

## Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Sedi-PLAST project funded by the French national agency (ANR-19-CE34-0012) and the PIREN Seine project.

## References

[1] Thiebault, T. et al. (2021) Record of trace organic contaminants in a river sediment core: From historical wastewater management to historical use. Sci Total Environ 773:145694. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145694