R2 AM Contaminated Harbor and River Sediment
Thursday, 17 November 2005: 8:00 AM - 11:40 AM in Ballroom 2

(STE-1117-856869) The association of floodplain PCB contamination to sediments of the Upper Hudson River.

Steinbacher, J¹, Shorr, B², ¹ NOAA Damage Assessment Center, Silver Spring, MD, USA² NOAA Coastal Protection and Restoration Division, Seattle, WA, USA

ABSTRACT- Natural resources of the Hudson River have been contaminated through past and ongoing discharges of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The Hudson River Natural Resource Trustees: New York State, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the U.S. Department of the Interior, are conducting a natural resource damage assessment (NRDA) to assess and restore those natural resources injured by PCBs. Several studies conducted from 2000 to 2004 have examined PCB contamination in floodplain soils and biota of the Upper Hudson River Valley, between Bakers Falls (RM 197) and Schodack Island (RM 132). PCB concentrations of floodplain soil samples were as high as 360 ppm and PCBs in biological samples reached concentrations greater than 50 ppm. The 65 miles of river that were studied were divided into four regions and the total PCB concentrations as well as PCB homologues and congeners of the floodplain samples showed similar spatial trends as found in the sediments of corresponding regions. In general, PCBs showed a decreasing downriver concentration gradient and a corresponding shift in PCB homologue and congener composition from lighter to heavier molecular weight compounds. These spatial contamination trends suggest a linkage to sediment-associated PCBs and a pathway from river sediments to the floodplains.

Key words: Hudson River, PCBs, Floodplains, NRDA