Variable persistence of artificial sweeteners during wastewater treatment: Implications for future use as tracers

For more than a decade the artificial sweeteners acesulfame (ACE) and sucralose (SUC) have been applied as tracers of the input of wastewater to environmental waters. Recently concerns have been raised that degradation of ACE during treatment may hinder or restrict its use as a wastewater tracer. In this study the value of ACE and SUC as tracers was reassessed based on samples of wastewater at 12 municipal wastewater treatment (MWWT) plants and from 7 septic systems and associated septic plumes in groundwater. The results indicated stability of SUC during MWWT at most plants, and variable removal of both sweeteners during some MWWT and in the septic wastewater systems. However, the residual concentrations of ACE and SUC in municipal effluent and in septic plumes indicate that both sweeteners remain valuable wastewater tracers. The mass ratio SUC/ACE was found to be a useful parameter for examining the relative persistence of these sweeteners.