Organic micropollutants (OMPs) are a diverse group of synthetic organic compounds including pesticides and pharmaceuticals. OMPs have proven to be very persistent and have the potential to bioaccumulate in organisms. The long-term health and ecosystem impacts include endocrine disruption, induction of antibiotic resistance and aquatic toxicity. Following entry into natural water systems, more hydrophobic organic compounds partition to suspended solids and eventually accumulate in sediments. Sediments have long been analyzed to characterize highly hydrophobic legacy compounds, but limited studies have analyzed OMPs in sediment traps. Compared to sediments, sediment trap samples permit quantification of downward contaminant flux at high temporal resolution, making them important archives of past contamination that can be exploited for reconstruction of environmental changes over time.  Onondaga Lake, located northwest of Syracuse, NY, was historically the most polluted lake in America because of raw sewage and industrial byproduct contamination. The lake has since undergone extensive remediation, industrial activities have been cut back, and the wastewater treatment plant has been upgraded. In this study, we analyze archived sediment trap samples collected by the Upstate Freshwater Institute from Onondaga Lake to identify and quantify the plethora of OMPs that are not yet targeted by environmental regulation or pollution prevention initiatives.  We will optimize a semi-automated method based on energized dispersive guided extraction (EDGE) to extract OMPs from Onondaga Lake sediment trap samples. Different solvent combinations and temperatures will be tested to maximize the extraction efficiency of OMPs. We will screen for OMPs in the sample extracts against an in-house compound database using liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS). Results from this project will provide new knowledge about the local history of environmental contamination patterns with respect to OMPs.

Characterizing organic micropollutants in Onondaga Lake sediment traps using energized dispersive guided extraction coupled to liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.