Aerated lagoons, typically used by small communities, often provide limited removal of wastewater nutrients. Given increasingly stringent wastewater standards, it is imperative that effective, but economical and easy-to-operate, treatment technologies be developed. The Submerged Attached Growth Reactor (SAGR®) is a treatment process developed to perform nitrification near freezing temperatures. Previous tests on full-scale installations have shown that SAGR could consistently remove ammonia to below current Canadian standards and provide additional total suspended solids and biochemical oxygen demand removal. In this study, we evaluated removal of polar chemicals of emerging concern (CECs), including pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and pesticides, at SAGR installations in two Manitoba First Nations communities (MCN and LPFN) under cold winter conditions. Both showed some removal of diclofenac, naproxen, clarithromycin, metoprolol, and trimethoprim, likely by biotransformation. Average naproxen removal was 21% (2.53 × 10³ ng L⁻¹) in MCN and 64% (1.58 × 10³ ng L⁻¹) in LPFN. Atenolol was well-removed by SAGR, by 80% on average (range of 64%–94%). Clarithromycin, metoprolol, and trimethoprim removal was similar within and between systems, ranging from 54% to 76% (30.8–3.07 × 10² ng L⁻¹ removed). Carbamazepine was detected in nearly all samples, but was not well-removed, consistent with other treatment studies. Overall, results showed that SAGR technology could remove CECs at moderate level, while providing designed treatment performance. This work will help to improve our understanding of wastewater treatment in small and/or remote communities with limited infrastructure and challenging cold-weather conditions.

小型社区通常使用的充气泻湖通常只能有限地去除废水中的养分。鉴于日益严格的废水标准，必须开发有效但经济且易于操作的处理技术。浸没式生长反应器（SAGR®）是一种为在接近冰点的温度下进行硝化作用而开发的处理工艺。之前在大型设备上进行的测试表明，SAGR可以始终如一地将氨去除到低于加拿大现行标准，并提供额外的总悬浮固体和生化需氧量去除。在这项研究中，我们评估了新兴关注极性化学品（CEC）的去除，包括药物，个人护理产品和农药，在寒冷的冬季条件下，在曼尼托巴两个原住民社区（MCN和LPFN）的SAGR设施中。两者均显示可能通过生物转化去除了双氯芬酸，萘普生，克拉霉素，美托洛尔和甲氧苄啶。萘普生的平均去除率为21％（2.53×10³ 纳克大号^-1）在MCN和64％（1.58×10 ³ 纳克大号^-1在LPFN）。SAGR去除了阿替洛尔，平均去除了80％（范围为64％–94％）。在系统内部和系统之间，克拉霉素，美托洛尔和甲氧苄啶的清除率相似，范围从54％到76％（清除率30.8–3.07×10 ²  ng L ^-1）。几乎所有样品中均检出了卡马西平，但去除得不好，与其他治疗研究一致。总体而言，结果表明，SAGR技术可以中等程度地去除CEC，同时提供设计的治疗性能。这项工作将有助于增进我们对基础设施有限和寒冷天气条件严峻的小型和/或偏远社区对废水处理的理解。