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(T/EH119) Organic contaminants in sediments of reservoirs in the Ruhr Valley. Regier, Annette1, Kamp, Hella1, Weckwerth, Gerd2, Rammensee, Werner2, Leythaeuser, Detlev1, Schwark, Lorenz1, 1 2 ABSTRACT- The Ruhr Valley is one of the biggest industrialised areas in Europe. For centuries it has been famous not only for coal mining and metal processing, but also for all other kinds of industry. During the last decades the "dirty" coal mining and metall industry shut down. Legislation and public demands forced industry to diminish their emissions. As a result air and water quality improved considerably in the last years. This development should also be seen in lake sediments, which are often refered to as archives of water quality. The Ruhr River which gave the area its name, and its tributaries are dammed at several places to cover the need of water for drinking and industry. We examined dated sediment cores from two of these reservoirs in the Ruhr River. Main attention was given to the contamination with organic compounds. The time interval of interest were the last 50 years. It has been found, that the sediments are considerably contaminated with organic compounds from different sources: There are PAHs from combustion processes and fossil fuels, LABs from detergent use, coprostanol from human feaces, aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons show a clear input of fossil fuels: oil as well as coal. Concentration profiles of the contaminants can be correlated with the historical evolution of the area. Additional compound classes are going to be incorporated into the investigation to establish the sources and pathways of introduction with resonable certainty. Key words: organic polluants, sediment, lacustrine, Ruhr Valley |
