Sediments historical contamination

Albrecht ID, AL Barkovskii, P Adriaens (1999) Production and dechlorination of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-/)-dioxin in historically-contaminated estuarine sediments. Environ Sci Technol 33 737-744. 

Bushart SP, B Bush, EL Barnard, A Bott (1998) Volatilization of extensively dechlorinated polychlorinated biphenyls from historically contaminated sediments. Environ Toxicol Chem 17 1927-1933. 

Sediments Quality and quantity of sediments are an issue of concern, both in relation to the stored sediments in dams, and also concerning the possible remobilisation of sediment bound, historic contaminants as consequence of floods events. 

Hawthorne, S.B., Grabanski, C.B., and Miller, D.J. Measured partitioning coefficients for parent and alkyl polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in 114 historically contaminated sediments Part 1. iCc values, Environ. Toxicol Chem., 25(11) 2901-2911, 2006,... 

Reports on the presence of explosives in sediments from contaminated field sites exist. However, a lack of adequate information on spatial distribution of contamination, and the bioavailability and toxicity of sediment-associated explosives in historically contaminated military (e.g., former manufacturing plants) and active training sites (e.g., Navy firing ranges) preclude an accurate evaluation of the local and global environmental significances of the presence of explosives in aquatic systems. We encourage additional research to fill this substantial data gap. 

Forstner, U., Heise, S., Schwartz, R., Westrich, B. and Ahlf, W. (2004) Historical contaminated sediments and soils at the river basin scale examples from the Elbe River catchment area, JSS -J. Soils Sediments, 4(4), pp. 247-260. 

In a study on historical contaminated sediments in the Rhine catchment, different lines of evidence were discussed before drawing a conclusion on the risk of a site with regard to the situation in the Port of Rotterdam (Heise and Forstner, 2006 Heise et al., 2004) ... 

Heise, S. and Forstner, U. (2006) Risks from historical contaminated sediment in the Rhine basin. Water Air Soil Pollut, Eocus, 6, pp. 625-636. 

Heise, S., Forstner, U., Westrich, B., Jancke, T., Karnahl, J., Salomons, W. and Schonberger, H. (2004) Inventory of Historical Contaminated Sediment in Rhine Basin and its Tributaries, Report on Behalf of the Port of Rotterdam, Hamburg/Stuttgart. 

Figure 3.21 Selective desorption behavior of PCB congeners from historically contaminated sediment, (a) Harbor sediment 15% SOM and PCB concentration of...

Rawn, D. F. K., W. L. Lockhart, P. Wilkinson, D. A. Savoie D. C. G. Muir, 2001. Historical Contamination ofYukon Lake Sediments by PCBs and Organochlorine Pesticides Influence of Local Sources and Watershed Characteristics. Sci. Total Environ. 280 17-37. 

It is important to realise that the above models should not be used to predict Cs-sorption reversibility over time frames of more than a few months. Observations that radiocesium, which has been in contact with contaminated sediments for many years, can still be mobilised by enhanced ammonium concentrations (3,4) give evidence for a backwards reaction. This reaction, which is interpreted as a remobilization of radiocesium from fixed edge-interlayer sites on illite (i.e. box Z in Figure 5), is apparently too slow to be observed in laboratory experiments of many weeks. Therefore, extractions of radiocesium from historically contaminated sediments have been used, and are described below, to obtain a first estimate of this slow remobilization rate. 

Consequently, Europe has historically been a hotspot of environmental pressures because of the contamination caused by agricultural, municipal, and industrial activities and high population densities [5, 6], Such contamination has led to poor water quality in many European river basins [7-12], In addition, this pollution can cause the accumulation in river sediments of toxic compounds such as pesticides [13], surfactants [14], and alkyl polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) [15], These can in turn act as a source to biota [16] and as a potential risk for entire ecosystems [17] if the compounds bioaccumulate, and thereby enter the food chain [18],... 

Mirex has been detected in air, surface water, soil and sediment, aquatic organisms, and foodstuffs. Historically, mirex was released to the environment primarily during its production or formulation for use as a fire retardant and as a pesticide. There are no known natural sources of mirex and production of the compound was terminated in 1976. Currently, hazardous waste disposal sites and contaminated sediment sinks in Lake Ontario are the major sources for mirex releases to the environment (Brower and Ramkrishnadas 1982 Comba et al. 1993). 

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