Enhanced atmospheric deposition of semivolatile organic contaminants to surface waters adjacent to urban areas
- Univ. of Maryland System, Solomons, MD (United States). Chesapeake Biological Lab.
- Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, NJ (United States)
To test the hypothesis that elevated levels of atmospheric contaminants in urban areas result in enhanced atmospheric deposition to adjacent surface waters, air and precipitation were sampled at three stations along an urban to over-water to rural transect across southern Lake Michigan in 1994 and 1994 and across the northern Chesapeake Bay in 1995 and 1996. Rainwater was collected during several storms from south Chicago, from aboard the R/V Lake Guardian positioned in Lake Michigan 16 kilometers northeast of the Chicago metropolitan area, and from a rural site along the southern shoreline of the lake. PCB concentrations in Chicago precipitation were two to three orders of magnitude higher than the regional background, ranging from 4.1 ng/L in January, 1995 to 13, 190, and 8.2 ng/L during three consecutive storms in July, 1994. Urban precipitation contained significant amounts of particulate-bound PCB congeners, implying PCB enrichment due to efficient scavenging of highly contaminated particulate matter. PCB levels in precipitation falling over southern Lake Michigan were two to as much as 400 times greater than the regional background concentration, indicating that the urban plume of Chicago increases atmospheric deposition of contaminants to Lake Michigan over spatial scales of 10`s of kilometers. Air and precipitation samples collected at an urban site in Baltimore, MD and a down-wind rural site northeast of the city are currently being analyzed to map a similar urban plume signature in the northern Chesapeake Bay.
- OSTI ID:
- 460466
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-961149-; TRN: IM9718%%47
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 17. annual meeting of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry: partnerships for the environment - science, education, and policy, Washington, DC (United States), 17-21 Nov 1996; Other Information: PBD: 1995; Related Information: Is Part Of SETAC 17. annual meeting -- Abstract book. Partnerships for the environment: Science, education, and policy; PB: 378 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Enhanced air-water exchange and dry particle deposition of PCBs and PAHs in southern Lake Michigan in the Chicago plume
Toxic organics and trace metals in air and precipitation at sites near Lake Michigan