BLEACHED KRAFT PULP-MILL DISCHARGED ORGANIC-MATTER IN RECIPIENT LAKE SEDIMENT - ENVIRONMENTAL AND MOLECULAR-PROPERTIES

Environmental properties of organic matter contained halogen and sulfu r were studied in sediments of bleached kraft pulp mill effluent (BKME ) recipient lakes and 2 m(3) outdoor enclosures (mesocosms). The BKME contributed to 1% (v/v) of the total water flow in the lake downstream of the pulp mill where the sediments contained 1.7 to 4 mg of tetrahy drofuran extractable organic halogen (EOX-Cl) and 0.6 to 0.8 mg of tet rahydrofuran extractable organic sulfur (EOS-S) g(-1) of organic matte r. Upstream sediment contained 0.03 mg of EOX-Cl and 0.7 mg of EOS-S g (-1) of organic matter. EOX was a better indicator for the influence o f BKME in the recipient sediment than EOS. The polarity of BKME contai ned EOX corresponded to log K-ow of < 1, and that of the downstream se diment contained EOX to > 4.5. HP-SEC analysis of the molecular weight distribution (MWD) of the EOX showed a peak between 300 to 600 g mol( -1) for the BKME and between 1000 to 2000 g mol(-1) for the downstream sediment. The MWD of the BKME contained EOS peaked at 300 to 1000 g m ol(-1), and that of the downstream sediment contained EOS at 1000 to 5 000 g mol(-1). These results indicate that BKME contained organic halo gen and sulfur undergo major structural transformations when incorpora ted into sediment. The biota-to-sediment accumulation factor (BSAF) of EOX from sediments formed downstream of the mill and in the mesocosms to the lipids of Lumbriculus variegatus was 0.4 to 0.7. This is of a similar order of magnitude to the BSAF reported for 2,3,7,8-tetrachlor odibenzo-p-dioxin and 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzofuran.