Wastewater-treatment plants (WWTPs) are an important source of mercury (Hg) to surface waters, but little is known about temporal variability of efflux to aquatic systems. We found that Hg concentrations in effluent varied by about a factor of 2 on monthly, weekly, and hourly timescale comparisons. These results suggest that limited sampling can yield a representative concentration with reasonable uncertainty for purposes of estimating the environmental significance of Hg from WWTPs. Environ Toxicol Chem 2020;39:1027-1031. © 2020 SETAC.

中文翻译：

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俄亥俄州西南部两个市政污水处理厂废水中汞的时间变化。

废水处理厂（WWTP）是地表水中汞（Hg）的重要来源，但对水生系统外排的时间变化知之甚少。我们发现，在每月，每周和每小时的时间尺度比较中，废水中的汞浓度变化约为2倍。这些结果表明，有限的采样可以产生具有合理不确定性的代表性浓度，以便估算污水处理厂中汞的环境重要性。Environ Toxicol Chem 2020; 39：1027-1031。©2020 SETAC。