Delaware River

Toschik, P.C., Rattner, B.A., McGowan, P.C. et al. (2005). Effects of contaminant exposure on reproductive success of Ospreys nesting in Delaware river and bay. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 24, 17-628. 

Sheldon, L.S. and Hites, R.A. (1978). Organic-compounds in Delaware River. Environmental Science and Technology 12, 1188-1194. 

Toschik PC, Rattner BA, McGowan PC, Christman MC, Carter DB, Hale RC, Matson CW, Ottinger MA. 2005. Effects of contaminant exposure on reproductive success of ospreys (Pandion haliaetus) nesting in Delaware River and Bay, USA. Environ Toxicol Chem 24 617-628. 

Tank vessel Corinthos 01-31-75 Delaware River, Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania 266,000... 

Schwartz M, Sharpe J. (2003) Use of Rn to trace groundwater discharge into the Delaware River. Estuaries in press... 

Sheldon LS, Hites RA. 1979. Sources and movement of organic chemicals in the Delaware River. Environmental Science and Technology 13 574-579. 

In general, higher levels of phenol appear to be found in lakes and rivers that serve as water sources and discharge receivers for industrial and population centers, probably as a result of industrial activity and commercial use of phenol-containing products. For example, the presence of higher levels of phenol in the Delaware River near Philadelphia is the result of industrial effluents discharged into the sewer system (Sheldon and Hites 1979). 

Phenol has been detected in the effluent discharges of a variety of industries. It was found in petroleum refinery waste water at concentrations of 33.5 ppm (Pfeffer 1979) and 100 ppb (Paterson et al. 1996), in the treated and untreated effluent from a coal conversion plant at 4 and 4,780 ppm, respectively (Parkhurst et al. 1979), and in shale oil waste water at a maximum of 4.5 ppm (Hawthorne and Sievers 1984). It has also been detected in the effluent from a chemical specialties manufacturing plant at 0.01-0.30 ppm (Jungclaus et al. 1978), in effluent from paper mills at 5-8 ppb (Keith 1976 Paterson et al. 1996), and at 0.3 ppm in a 24-hour composite sample from a plant on the Delaware River, 2 and 4 miles downriver from a sewage treatment plant (Sheldon and Hites 1979). 

However, 3,3 -dichlorobenzidine was not foimd in fish taken from waters in the vicinity of dye or textile manufaeturing plants on the Buffalo and Delaware rivers in the United States (Diachenko 1979). It was eoneluded that monitoring for 3,3 -dichlorobenzidine in marine waters of the United Kingdom is unwarranted at present (Law 1995). 

This section of this paper reports on a detailed study of the organic compounds in the Delaware River. Since most of our previous studies have dealt with isolated chemical plants on small rivers, we felt it would be instructive to study a complex river system surrounded by several large-scale chemical manufacturers. This would give us information on the effluents from several industrial dischargers, the relative persistence of chemical discharged from any single source, and the movement of these industrial chemicals in a major river ecosystem. 

Figure 3. The Delaware River between river miles 60 and 140 showing locations of chemical companies (side not significant). Sampling sites (O) collected August, 1976 (A) collected October, 1976 collected March, 1977.

Results and Discussion. The organic compounds identified in the Delaware River water samples are listed in Table III. These compounds cover a broad range of chemical types and include most of the major lipophilic compounds in the river. The data include the concentration range and the location of maximum concentration for each sampling season. Structures for a selected group of compounds are given in Figure 4. 

Municipal waste effluents are characterized by high concentrations of sterols, fatty acids, and fatty acid esters (24). These compounds (no. 4-11) were found at high levels in most of the samples from the Delaware River. For example, cholesterol was usually one of the most abundant compounds in the water. The concentration profile for cholesterol in the August water samples showed a maximum at river mile 93 which is consistent with the location of municipal sewage plants in the Philadelphia-Camden area. Fatty acids were not quantitated due to their poor chromatographic resolution, but they were present at very high levels in all samples. 

The presence of these compounds in the Delaware River may have some health implications. If the discharge site at river mile 104 is correct, then these compounds would enter the river only four miles downstream from the inlet for Philadelphia s drinking water. Tidal action is sufficient to carry these chemicals upstream to the inlet and, in fact, the volatile ethers, bls-(2-chloroethyl) ether, and l,2-bis(2-chloroethoxy) ethane, have been found in the drinking water supply (29). Health effects, notably the carcinogenic activity, of these compounds are not known. It should be stressed that the higher molecular weight compounds (no. 65-70) have not yet been detected in the drinking water nor have their health effects been evaluated. 

Finally, a few miscellaneous compounds which were identified in the Delaware River and which have not been previously reported as water contaminants will be discussed Chloro (trifluoromethyl) aniline and chloro (trifluoromethyl) nitrobenzene (no. 55 and 56) were identified in the water, they had maximum concentrations at river mile 78. Both compounds represent common sub-structures in various pesticide and dye molecules, and several of the companies located along the river have patents using these compounds (30-32j. It is possible that these compounds are actually present in the river water as such, but it is also possible that they are formed in the GC injection port by pyrolytic degradation of larger pesticide or dye molecules (see above). All three binaphthyl-sulfone isomers (no. 92) were identified in the river water near Philadelphia. Product literature for one of the companies in the area indicates production of condensed sulfonated polymers derived from naphthalene sulfonic acid and maleic anhydride. It seems likely that the binaphthylsulfones are formed as by-products during preparation of this commercial product. 

Industrial Discharge Inventory, Delaware River Basin Commission, Trenton, N.J. (1975). 

TNT, which was melted from WW1 ammunition into wooden boxes to be stored for more than 20 years at the bottom of the Delaware river. This TNT was remelted, grained, packed into Nutsches and purified by extraction with xylene, the only solvent... 

Di(2-ethylhexyl) adipate was found at microgram-per-litre levels in two of five samples of finished water from a water-treatment plant in the United States (WHO, 1996). It was detected in finished drinking-water in New Orleans, Louisiana, at an average concentration of 0.10 pg/L but not in drinking-water in two smaller nearby cities (lARC, 1982). Di(2-ethylhexyl) adipate was detected in the Delaware River at levels of 0.08-0.3 pg/L (Sheldon Hites, 1979). It has also been identified in Europe... 

Di(2-ethylhexyl) adipate was found at levels of 2000 pg/L near a chemical plant source near the Delaware River, north of Philadelphia in 1977 and at levels of 90 and 10 pg/L at sampling sites at influent and effluent waste-treatment sites, respectively (Sheldon Hites, 1979). 

Isophorone was detected in the Delaware River in the winter only in the summer, biodegradation or other processes (e.g., sorption) may have removed it from the water column. Isophorone has been detected in the sediments of Lake Pontchartrain, which is located in the delta plain of the Mississippi River. Its presence probably is due to the many industries that are situated along the Mississippi River and use the river water as process water. Levels of isophorone in surface waters range from a trace to 100 ppb however, this range represents only a few determinations. 

The presence of isophorone in drinking water is probably the result of using contaminated surface water as a source of drinking water. Of the three cities for which drinking water data are listed, Philadelphia receives its drinking water from the Delaware River, Cincinnati from the Ohio River, and New Orleans from the Mississippi River. These rivers receive numerous industrial effluents. 

The change from packed to capillary GC columns made possible the separation of extremely complex mixtures of organic chemicals at nanograms-per-liter concentrations. Capillary GC has increased the number of peaks observed in a typical drinking water sample from the Delaware River at Philadelphia, PA, from 60 peaks with packed-column GC to more than 250 (8). This situation indicates the increased information now available with capillary GC analysis. 

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