Source Apportionment of Organic Pollutants in the Aquatic Environment Considering Fractionation Between Source and Receptor

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9725068 Christensen This is an award to support research on methods for relating organic pollutants in the aquatic environment to their sources considering the effects of fractionation between sources and their receptors. Emphasis in this project will be on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons principally derived from incomplete combustion of fossil fuels and on polychlorinated biphenyls that are derived from many industrial applications in sediments from lakes and streams. Sources of sediment cores for polychlorinated biphenyls will be the lower Fox River of Wisconsin and for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, the Black River of Ohio. Reference cores will be obtained from Lake Michigan and Lake Erie. The investigator's objectives are to fully develop a source-receptor chemical mass balance model for the target aquatic contaminants, apply an iterative factor analysis model to analytical profiles of these contaminants and develop an optimal factor analytical model incorporating uncertainties for apportionment of the contaminants to their sources. Results of this project are expected to provide knowledge that is needed for effective abatement of pollution. Understanding the transport characteristics and fate of environmental contaminants are important steps in changing the way pollutants of air, land and water are controlled. Emergence of nonpoint sources of pollutants from urban and agricultural land and atmospheric deposition has made knowledge to be gained from this project potentially useful in addressing engineering approaches to abatement of pollution by identification of sources as a step toward coping with emissions by either prevention of their production or treatment at the source. ***