Role of Resuspended Sediments in the Transport and Bioaccumulation of Toxic Organic Contaminants in the Nearshore Marine Environment
Abstract
A particle entrainment simulator was used to simulate conditions during re suspension events in order to investigate how re suspension affects the chemical behavior of hydrophobic organic contaminants such as PCBs and PAHs in the coastal marine environment. Organic contaminants were evaluated in bulk sediments, sized fractionated sediments and re suspended particulate material. The sediments evaluated represented distinctions in contaminant loadings and sediment textural characteristics. It was concluded that contaminants are injected into the overlying water column in direct response to the severity of the re suspension events. In general, on a volume normalized basis (i.e., mass < L(1) of water) the contaminants showed elevated levels as the applied shear increased from 2 to 5 dynes/sq cm; however, on a mass normalized and organic carbon normalized basis, the chemical loadings decreased with increasing applied shear. Differences in the general behavior were traced to the textural and chemical differences of the bulk sediments used for re suspension experiments. It was concluded that the exact behavior of the contaminants was likely related to the amount of and contaminant load on material entrained during re suspension events and represents the interplay of: (1) dilution from depleted coarse grained material, (2) fortification from more highly loaded coarse grained materials as in the case of PAHs with log K sub ow >6 and (3) the effects from fine grained highly enriched material.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 11, 1994
- Accession Number
- ADA286433
Entities
People
- J. S. Latimer
Organizations
- University of Rhode Island