Distribution and Pathways of Some Chlorinated Benzenes in the Niagara River and Lake Ontario

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Abstract
Three major processes have been shown to be responsible for losses of chlorobenzenes, CB's, from water of the Niagara River and Lake Ontario -volatilization, sedimentation and discharge via the St. Lawrence River. The major losses (>80%) for all the CB's including hexachlorobenzene, HCB, were by volatilization. As would be predicted from chemical and physical properties, among all the CB's, HCB has the lowest tendency to volatilize and the highest tendency to become associated with suspended sediments. A compartmental analysis of CB's in Lake Ontario revealed that the bulk of the CB's in the lake is in the bottom sediments. The bottom sediments in the lake have been shown to be prone to resuspension and become redistributed to all the major sedimentation basins in the lake. At least a portion of CB's associated with bottom sediments appears to be available to lake biota.

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