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Contaminated sediment as a source of PCBs in a river system

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Author

Summary, in English

The transport of PCBs (Aroclor 1242) in a river system in southern Sweden was governed by outflow from sediment in a 26-ha contaminated lake. Experiments in the lake revealed that 14 g PCBs/d escaped from the sediment, while sedimentation was 3 g PCB/d. Volatilization of PCBs from the lake surface was 0.02 g/d, which was considerably higher than the atmospheric fallout . The majority of the sediment-desorbed compounds (80%) remained at the river mouth, 60 km downstream, and entered the Baltic Sea. Desorption increased the ratio of tetrachlorobiphenyls to pentachlorobiphenyls in the water. Transport across the water/air interface was higher for trichlorobiphenyls, while atmospheric deposition was dominated by penta- and hexachlorobiphenyls. Therefore, the sediment of the lake acted as a source of PCBs entering the river system as well as the atmosphere.

Publishing year

1990

Language

English

Pages

746-754

Publication/Series

Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences

Volume

47

Issue

4

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Canadian Science Publishing, NRC Research Press

Topic

  • Biological Sciences

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1205-7533