Dissolved and particle-bound natural organic matter play important roles in non-polar organic chemical distribution, mobility and bioavailability in sediments. Aeration of anoxic estuarine sediment pore waters by storm events, for example, can decrease the partitioning of non-polar compounds such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) to sediment-associated or dissolved organic matter up to an order of magnitude and thus mobilize dissolved PAHs or PCBs. The PAHs and PCBs would be maintained in the sediment unless disturbed. A fugacity model was used to calculate the partitioning and a sediment flux model was used to simulate the diffusive flux of the PAHs or PCBs. Model simulations and sensitivity analysis show n increases of diffusive flux for  Kpwdoc (pore water dissolved organic carbon) when it exceeds the log K of  5.7.  Many PAHs and PCBs have such high partition coefficients. Experiments with highly non-polar Pyretheroids are now being evaluated and will be discussed as well.

Transport of xenobiotics from sediment to the aqueous phase

248th National Meeting (2014)

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