The time-varying nature of estuaries often makes quantifying the transport of contaminants between environmental compartments challenging, especially for hydrophobic contaminants like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) that are present in low concentrations. However, polymeric samplers can be used in situ in the sediment bed and ex situ in sectioned sediment cores to determine time-weighted average porewater concentrations in the environment as well as at equilibrium, respectively. Combined with the geochemical tracer 222Rn, the advective transport of PCBs from the sediment, caused by processes like bioirrigation or tidal flushing, can be quantified. Results show that the sediments are depleted in both PCBs and 222Rn indicating that advective flushing is likely enhancing the transport of PCBs to the water column and causing a sorptive disequilibrium in the sediment bed.

Characterizing the advection of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) from the sediments in the Lower Duwamish Waterway Superfund site

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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