Persistence of nonylphenol ethoxylate surfactants and their primary degradation products in sediments from near a municipal outfall in the Strait of Georgia, British Columbia, Canada
- Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans, Sidney, British Columbia (Canada). Inst. of Ocean Sciences
Marine sediment cores and surface grabs were collected from the Strait of Georgia, British Columbia, Canada, near the Iona municipal outfall and were analyzed for nonylphenol (NP) and its ethoxylate compounds (NPnEOs). The authors used normal-phase liquid chromatography with electrospray mass spectrometric detection to determine concentrations of ethoxylates from n = 1 to n = 19. Over half the NPnEO inventory in marine sediments resides in ethoxylates of chain length greater than n = 2, suggesting that analyses limited to short-chain ethoxylates (n = 2) are under-reporting total NPnEO by a factor of 2. The NPnEO vertical profiles and oligomer distributions in dated sediment cores suggest that little degradation occurs once these compounds enter the sediments: the half-life for these compounds is estimated to be greater than 60 yr. The lack of change in NPnEO oligomer distribution with age suggests that degradation by chain shortening does not occur significantly. A rough inventory shows that over 30 t of NPnEO resides in Fraser River Delta sediments near the Iona municipal outfall and that the entire Strait of Georgia sediments contain over 170 t of NPnEO.
- OSTI ID:
- 354338
- Journal Information:
- Environmental Science and Technology, Journal Name: Environmental Science and Technology Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 33; ISSN 0013-936X; ISSN ESTHAG
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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