Towards the revision of the drinking water directive 98/83/EC. Development of a direct injection ion chromatographic-tandem mass spectrometric method for the monitoring of fifteen common and emerging disinfection by-products along the drinking water supply chain

According to the recent proposal released by the European Commission for the revision of the 98/83/EC Directive, water suppliers will be requested to monitor the nine bromine- and chlorine congeners of haloacetic acids, HAAs, as well as the oxyhalides chlorite and chlorate, as disinfection by-products (DBPs) originated during the potabilization process. In this work, we propose a direct-injection method based on ion chromatography and mass spectrometric detection for the determination of the mentioned DBPs as well as bromate (already included in the 98/83/EC), implemented also for the following emerging HAAs monoiodo-, chloroiodo- and diiodo-acetic acids. The method was optimized to include the fifteen compounds in the same analytical run, tuning the chromatographic (column and gradient) and detection conditions (suppression current, transitions, RF lens settings and collision energies). To avoid matrix effect and to manage the instrumental conditions, optimization was performed directly in drinking water matrix. The method quantitation limits satisfy the new limits imposed by the future directive and range from 0.08 μg/L (monobromoacetic acid) to 0.34 μg/L (trichloroacetic acid). The performance of the method was checked along different strategic sampling points of three potabilization plants serving the city of Turin (Italy), including intermediate treatments and finished waters. Recovery was checked according to the ±30% limit of acceptability set by EPA regulations. The effect of disproportionate concentrations of chlorite and chlorate in respect to HAAs on HAA signals was studied; this aspect is underestimated in literature. The method is routinely applied by the potabilization plant of the city of Turin to confirm the effectiveness of all control measures in abstraction, treatment, distribution and storage. This study represents the first example in Italy of development and use of a cutting-edge technique for HAAs analysis along the potabilization processes.