PARENT SESSION
SA8 - PCB Fate and Effects in the Housatonic River
Chair: Moore, Dwayne1, 1 411 Roosevelt Ave., Suite 204, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Co-chair: Svirsky, Susan2, Jenkins, Ken3, 2 1 Congress St., Suite 1100, Boston, Massachusetts, USA3 Blasland, Bouck & Lee, Inc., Long Beach, CA
8:00 AM to 12:00 PM - Sunday, 17 November 2002
Room Ballroom C
(071) Partitioning of PCBs and Importance to Fate and Effects.
Mathew, Rooni*,1, Garland, Edward1, Paquin, Paul1, 1 HydroQual, Inc., Mahwah, NJ, USA
ABSTRACT- It is well known that PCBs in the water and sediment of aquatic systems will be distributed among the freely dissolved, DOC-complexed and particulate phases. The distribution among these phases will vary markedly over the range of PCB congeners that are typically present in aquatic systems impacted by PCBs, such as the Housatonic River, because the PCB congeners vary by orders of magnitude in their degree of hydrophobicity. It is important that this variation be understood and well characterized when a system is being studied, as it has important implications to the fate and ultimate disposition of PCBs in both the biotic and abiotic compartments. Sorption to particles is important in the abiotic sector because the movement of particulate material will have a direct bearing upon the movement of sorbed PCBs in the system. The degree of sorption of PCBs to particles and to dissolved organic matter is also important, because it effects the bioavailability of PCBs to aquatic organisms, whether from uptake from the water or ingestion of particulate-bound PCB, and this in turn affects its uptake and accumulation in the food web. Here, we will review recent data from the Housatonic River project and discuss some important implications for ongoing evaluation of PCB contamination at this site. Consideration is given to partitioning at low POC concentrations where a conventional three-phase partitioning model tends to under-predict the partitioning to the solid phase.
Key words: PCB, partitioning, bioavailability, POC