Background'' soil concentration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from Burlington, Vermont

Conference · Mon Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 1993 · Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States)

OSTI ID:5698224

Parker, R L; Sparks, M K ^[1]

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1. Wagner, Heindel and Noyes, Inc., Burlington, VT (United States)

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH's) were identified in soils from waterfront industrial land in Burlington prior to conversion to a park. PAH's ranged from 2,457 to 16,005 ppb. As a result, this area was placed on the Vt. DEC list of active'' hazardous sites. The few studies available regarding background concentrations of PAH's (i.e. ATSDR, 1990), suggested that the waterfront PAH values were low for urban soils. To provide a context for evaluating the waterfront PAH concentrations, a background study of soils in the City of Burlington was conducted. Twelve composite soil samples were collected from within a 1-mile radius of the proposed park; an area that encompasses a large portion of the City. To correlate PAH concentrations with land-uses, three samples were collected from each of four zones: industrial, mixed commercial-residential, residential and recreational. Samples (and one field blank) were analyzed via EPA method 8100. Total PAH's from the study ranged from 105.7 to 122,035 ppb. The minimum value was from a baseball field; the maximum value from a residential lawn. The arithmetic mean for the Burlington study was 19,380 ppb (compared to 10,530 ppb for the waterfront). The background'' values indicate that the waterfront park soils are below the study background'' mean. It is difficult to assess the origin of the elevated PAH values because of the numerous contributors of environmental PAH. One common element that appears to characterize soils with the highest background'' PAH values is linkage to recent or historic building fires. In many instances building combustion may be a dominant local source of soil PAH's.

• OSTI ID: 5698224
• Report Number(s): CONF-9303211-; CODEN: GAAPBC
• Journal Information: Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States), Vol. 25:2; Conference: 28. annual Geological Society of America (GSA) Northeastern Section meeting, Burlington, VT (United States), 22-24 Mar 1993; ISSN 0016-7592
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS
ECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
URBAN AREAS
SOIL CHEMISTRY
VERMONT
LAND POLLUTION
LAND USE
SOILS
AROMATICS
CHEMISTRY
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
HYDROCARBONS
MASS TRANSFER
NORTH AMERICA
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
POLLUTION
USA
540250* - Environment
Terrestrial- Site Resource & Use Studies- (1990-)