Pentachlorophenol, in estuarine sediments

DeLaune, R.D., R.P. Gambrell, and K.S. Reddy. 1983. Fate of pentachlorophenol in estuarine sediment. Environ. Pollut. 6B 297-308. 

In soils, PCP persisted for 15 to more than 60 days, depending on soil conditions and application rate. At initial concentrations of 100 mg PCP/kg soil, the Tb 1/2 was 10 to 40 days at 30°C under flooded conditions. However, in aerobic soils there was virtually no degradation after 2 months (Kaufman 1978). In rice paddy soils, initial concentrations of 4 mg PCP/kg fell to 2 mg/kg in 7 days (Bevenue and Beckman 1967). Pentachlorophenol was still measurable after 12 months in warm, moist soils (Cote 1972 USEPA 1980). In estuarine sediments, degradation was most rapid under conditions of increased oxygen and a pH of 8.0 (DeLaune et al. 1983). 

Selective extraction was used to operationally determine the quantitative and qualitative distributions of PCB 8 and saturated hydrocarbons among free lipid (FL), humic acid (HA), and humin (HU) fractions of four contaminated estuarine sediments. In all samples, over 90% of the total sedimentary PCB s and hydrocarbons were extracted with FL fractions. Bound (HA and HD) and free assemblages of these compounds may have derived from different sources. Two polar, chlorinated pollutants also detected In this study, hexachlorophene (HCP) and pentachlorophenol (PCP), were proportionately more concentrated In bound fractions than the non-polar compounds HCP was detected only In HA fractions and was probably chemically hound to refractory organic matter. Selective extraction Is a promising technique for Investigating strongly bound polar pollutants, such as HCP, which apparently are not recovered by conventional solvent extraction. 

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