ENVR 15 |
| The Hudson River Estuary is subject to significant contamination of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from numerous sources including the Upper Hudson River, sewer overflows and atmospheric deposition from urban-originating PCBs. However, the relative importance of these sources to the estuary's food web is not fully understood. Sources of PCBs to the estuary were apportioned using chiral signatures of PCBs in air, water, total suspended matter, phytoplankton and sediment. PCBs 91, 95, 136 and 149 were racemic in the atmospheric samples, while the other phases contained nonracemic PCB 95 and, to a lesser extent, PCB 149. Thus, the predominant atmospheric source of these congeners is likely unweathered local pollution and not volatilization from the estuary. Chiral signatures in the dissolved phase and total suspended matter were correlated with Upper Hudson discharge, suggesting that the delivery of nonracemic contaminated sediment from the Upper Hudson, not the atmosphere, controls phytoplankton uptake of some PCBs. |
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Fate of Persistent Organic Pollutants in Urban Systems
8:30 AM-11:30 AM, Sunday, August 19, 2007 Boston Park Plaza -- Beacon Hill Rm, Oral
Division of Environmental Chemistry |