The Fox River, Green Bay and Lake Michigan are major sources of PCBs
to the air, with thousands of pounds rising off the surface each year,
like perfume from a bottle. This process is called “volatilization.”
Though PCBs don’t dissolve easily in water, they can move fairly rapidly
into the air, especially in warm weather in a high wind.
As surface water on the sediment dries, it “pulls” the PCBs into the
air. PCB losses increase with repeated wetting and drying of the sediment.
Though the immediate health risks may be relatively minor to those breathing
the air nearby, large amounts of PCBs could escape the sediment and landfills
over a period of many decades, to circulate and fall out again from the
air onto land and water downwind, where the PCBs would accumulate up the
food chain again. This repeated cycling could continue to contaminate
our food sources far into the future. Arctic and high mountain regions
face special risks, because airborne PCBs fall out when they hit cold air.
(See Long
Distance PCB Harm to Humans.) Over the next century, worldwide
airborne PCBs will selectively congregate to cold regions, endangering
the survival of humans and wildlife there. We must do
our part to prevent this PCB migration.
It’s essential that the Fox River and Bay cleanup plan include stringent
controls to limit the exposure of wet sediments to air, from the time of
dredging to final disposal.
Introduction to PCBs and Volatility --- (please visit this
excellent site)
http://www.oswego.edu/other_campus/ers/volatilization.html
SMU 56/57 Demonstration Project: Air Monitoring Emission Calculations
(a study during colder weather) [PDF]
http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/water/wm/lowerfox/sediment/am_emission_calculations.pdf
The Fox River Mass Balance Study (includes volatilization information)
[PDF]
http://www.wi.water.usgs.gov/pubs/wrir-00-4245/wrir-00-4245.pdf
Determining Similarity among PCB Congener Profiles from Sediment Samples
Using a Simple Multivariate Distance Measure (Fox River and Green Bay)
[PDF] http://www.stratusconsulting.com/Staff/PDFs/dave.pdf
Lake Michigan Mass Balance Studies (includes volatilization studies)
http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/lmmb01/pubs.html
PCBs and Volatilization
http://www.copa.org/library/articles/bv/volatile.htm
POLYCHLORINATED BIPHENYLS (PCBs) AS TRACERS OF BIOGEOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
IN RIVERS
http://wi.water.usgs.gov/nawqa/pubs/sha.acs.html
Properties Of Organic Chemicals Which Affect Diffusion And Volatilization
http://www.umr.edu/~kapilas/properties.html
Volatilization of Chemicals from Soil
http://www.usf.uos.de/archive/~strapp/RW.html
Environmental Effects of Dredging Technical Notes: PCB Volatilization
from Dredged Material [PDF] http://www.wes.army.mil/el/dots/pdfs/eedp02-12.pdf
Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme
http://www.amap.no/maps-gra/mg-pop-1.htm
Introduction to the special issue on air-surface exchange of persistent
organic pollutants (POPs)
http://www.pdii.lipi.go.id/weblm/pdii-lipi/milab/envp/envp4.htm
Lake Superior Recycles Its PCBs
http://www.seagrant.umn.edu/seiche/apr.99/art03.html
Inhalation risk factors
http://risk.lsd.ornl.gov/tox/toxvals.shtml
THE EXPOSURE OF THE NEW YORK CITY WATERSHED TO PCBs EMITTED FROM THE
HUDSON RIVER
[PDF] http://www.qc.edu/CBNS/pcbs/watershed_rpt_.pdf
PCBs Volatilization from Sediments
http://www.cee.uc.edu/~msuidan/research/projects/pcbs.html
MANAGING PCB EMISSIONS FROM CONTAMINATED SEDIMENT REMEDIATION http://massbay.mit.edu/pg?/marineCenter/conference/abstracts05.htm
Hudson Sloop Clearwater comments on volatilization
http://www.clearwater.org/epa/public-comment/pc-1.html#vol-into-ecosystem
"Do Large-scale Remedial and Dredging Events Have the Potential
to Release Significant Amounts of Semivolatile Compounds to the Atmosphere?"
Chiarenzelli, Jeff; Scrudato, Ronald,; Bush, Brian; Carpenter, David; and
Bushart, Sean. 1998,
Environmental Health Perspectives, 106(2):47-49.
"Alteration of Aroclor 1248 in Foundry Waste by Volatilization?" Chiarenzelli,
J., Scrudato, R., Jensen, K., Maloney, T., Wunderlich, M., Pagano, J.,
Schneider, J. 1998. Water, Air, and Soil Pollution, 104:113-124.
"PCB Volatile Loss and the Moisure Content of Sediment during Drying"
Chiarenzelli, J.R., Scrudato, R.J. , Wunderlich, M.L., Nenga, G.N., Lashko,
O.P. 1997. Chemosphere 34(11):2429-2436.
"Volatile Loss of PCB Aroclors from Subaqueous Sand" Chiarenzelli, Jeffrey
R., Scrudato, Ronald J. , Wunderlich, Michelle L. 1997. Environ. Sci. Technol.
31:597-602.
"Volatilization of Polychlorinated Biphenyls from Sediment During Drying
at Ambient Conditions" Chiarenzelli, J., Scrudato, R., Arnold, G., Wunderlich,
M., Rafferty, D. 1996. Chemosphere 33(5):899-911.
"Exposure to Polychorinated Biphenyls in Residential Indoor Air and
Outdoor Air near a Superfund Site" 1997. Vorhees, Donna J., Cullen, Alison
C., and Altshul, Larisa M. Environ. Sci. Technol. 31(12):3612-3618.
"Atmospheric Deposition of Toxic Pollutants to the Great Lakes as Measured
by the Integrated Atmospheric Deposition Network" 1998. Hillery, Barbara
R., Simcik, Matt F., Basu, Ilora, Hoff, Raymond M., Strachan, William M.J.,
Burniston, Debbie, Chan, C.H., Brice, Kenneth A., Sweet, Clyde W., Hites,
Ronald A. Environ. Sci. Technol. 32(15):2216-2221.
"Dry Deposition of Particulate Polychlorinated Biphenyls and Polycyclic
Aromatic Hydrocarbons to Lake Michigan" 1998. Franz, Thomas P., Eisenreich,
Steven J., Holsen, Thomas M. Environ. Sci. Technol. 32(23):3681-3688.
"Urban Contamination of the Chicago/Costal Lake Michigan Atmosphere
by PCBs and PAHs during AEOLOS" 1997. Simcik, Matt F., Zhang, Huixiang,
Eisenreich, Steven J., Franz, Thomas P. Environ. Sci. Technol. 31(7):2141-2147.
BACCI, E. UND C. GAGGI, (1985). Polychlorinated biphenyls in plant foliage:
Translocation or volatilization from contaminated soils. Bull. Environ.
Contam. Toxicol., 35:673-681.
Cliath, M. M., Resketo, M. R. , Elseewi, A. A. , and Page, A. L.
Desorption characteristics of PCB's in soil. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. Proc.
1984. (Abstract). List of publications: http://www.ussl.ars.usda.gov/bio/mcliath_pages/publications.htm
