PCB Partitioning in Sediment‐Water Systems: The Effect of Sediment Concentration

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Abstract
The effect of sediment concentration variations on polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) sorption to natural lake sediment (Saginaw Bay, Mich.) and montmorillonite clay has been investigated. In studies utilizing tritiated 2,4,5,2′,4′,5′‐hexachlorobiphenyl (HCBP), partition coefficient values for adsorption isotherms (πa) were found to increase as sediment concentrations (m) were decreased from m = 1000 mg/L to m = 50 mg/L. HCBP adsorption to montmorillonite (m = 1000 mg/L, πa = 2900 L/kg; m = 50 mg/L, πa = 10 600 L/kg) appeared to be more sensitive to sediment concentration than did adsorption to the Saginaw Bay sediment (m = 1000 mg/L, πa = 9900 L/kg; m = 50 mg/L, πa = 17 100 L/kg). Evidence suggests that these variations are not the result of nonlinear isotherms. Although variations in solution chemical composition and kinetic effects were found to affect partitioning, neither factor appeared to adequately account for the magnitude of the observed sediment concentration effect. In experiments in which sediment concentrations were decreased (m = 1000 mg/L to 10 mg/L) while equilibrium aqueous HCBP concentrations were maintained at approximately constant levels, πa values for adsorption increased. The behavior was in conformity with the isotherm results. The observed behavior might be due to direct solid phase interactions between suspended particles. The occurrence of such interactions in natural waters could have potentially significant implications for efforts to predict sediment‐water PCB distributions.
Funding Information
  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency