Boston Harbor , PAHs

McGroddy, S. E., Sediment-pore water partitioning of PAHs and PCBs in Boston Harbor, MA , Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of Massachusetts, Boston, 1993,255 p. 

In general, turnover rates tend to be faster in soils and sediments with long-term exposure to PAHs, but Shiaris (1989a,b) made the interesting observation that high rates of benzoMpyrene degradation in Boston Harbor sediments — with a significant history of PAH exposure - resulted in the production of considerable... 

Figure 15.7 PAH concentrations in sediments and pore waters, in Boston Harbor (USA) at (a) Fort Point channel, (b) Spectacle Island, and (c) Peddocks Island. (Modified from McGroddy and Farrington, 1995.)...

Fox and Staley (1976), which ranged from 66 ng/m for benzo[a]pyrene to 120 ng/m for pyrene. Benner and Gordon (1989) postulated that the observed decrease in PAH concentrations over the 1975-85 decade resulted from the increasing use of catalytic converters in U.S. automobiles over that period. These authors also reported concentrations of PAHs in a typical vapor-phase sample from the Boston Harbor Tunnel for four PAHs included in this profile anthracene (32.3 ng/m ), fluoranthene (25.6 ng/m ), phenanthrene (184 ng/m ), and pyrene (28.3 ng/m. They emphasized that the vapor-phase samples included PAHs inherently present in the vapor phase as well as the more volatile 3- and 4-ring PAHs that may be desorbed from particles during sampling. These results underscore the need to evaluate both particle- and vapor-phase samples to obtain more reliable estimates of total atmospheric PAH concentrations. 

Vorkamp et al. in a global survey have reported elevated levels of PAHs (Vorkamp et al. 2010). Sampling in this work has been done in 2006 and 2007 thus it was quite contemporary. The ZPAHs reached a maximum of 5,966 ng/g dw in the Boston harbor and 1,453 ng/g dw in the Sydney estuary. These levels were above the baseline value as set by (Baumard et al. 1999a, b) and in the case of Boston harbor... 

McGroddy S, Farrington JW (1995) Sediment porewater partitioning of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in three cores from Boston Harbor, MA. Environ Sci Technol 29 1542-1550. 

Lohmann, R., MacFarlane, J.K., Gschwend, P.M., 2005. Importance of black carbon to sorption of native PAHs, PCBs, and PCDDs in Boston and New York harbor sediments. Environ. Sci. Technol. 39,141-148. 

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