Page - 69 - in Freshwater Microplastics - Emerging Environmental Contaminants?

Sources andFateofMicroplastics inUrban Areas:AFocusonParisMegacity RachidDris, JohnnyGasperi, andBrunoTassin Abstract Since thebeginningof the2010s, thenumberof investigationsonmicro- plastics in freshwater increased dramatically. However, almost no study aims at investigating the various sources and fate of microplastics in a catchment. This chapter aims at analyzing the various sources and fate of microplastics for an urban catchment and its hydrosystem (sewage, runoff, etc.). It presents the results obtained during a 3-year study of the ParisMegacity. Such a study required the developmentofappropriate samplingstrategies foreachcompartment. Itwashigh- lighted thatfibers arehighlyconcentrated in the studiedarea, and thereforea focus in thiscategoryofmicroplasticswascarriedout.Theatmospheric falloutexhibited important levels of fibers. However, at the scale of the Parisian agglomeration, wastewater treatment plant disposals and combined sewer overflows represent the major sources (number offibers introducedper year) among the studiedones. Keywords Fibers, Freshwater, Microplastics, Plastic pollution, Urban areas, Urban impact 1 Introduction Although the first scientific articles that identified plastic in the environment as an issue are rather old [1, 2], efforts of the scientific community on this subject actually started at the beginning of the twenty-first century with the 2004 paper of Thompson et al. [3]. Studies highlighted the issue of microplastics (MPs) and raise two main questions: (1) the interaction between plastic items and the R.Dris (*), J.Gasperi, andB.Tassin LEESU,UMRMA102, E´cole desPonts,UPEC,AgroParisTech,UPE,Paris, France e-mail: rachid.dris@enpc.fr M.Wagner, S.Lambert (eds.),FreshwaterMicroplastics, HdbEnvChem58,DOI10.1007/978-3-319-61615-5_4, ©TheAuthor(s) 2018 69