PASSIVE WATER SAMPLING FOR POLYNUCLEAR AROMATIC-HYDROCARBONS USING LIPID-CONTAINING SEMIPERMEABLE-MEMBRANE DEVICES (SPMDS) - APPLICATION TOCONTAMINANT RESIDENCE TIMES

Lipid-containing semipermeable membrane devices are applied to the qua ntitative determination of the persistence of polynuclear aromatic hyd rocarbons (PAH) in an irrigation water canal, a representative waterwa y. The uniform and reproducible sampling of the USGS design of lipid-c ontaining SPMDs is exploited to measure PAH half-lives without requiri ng calculation of water concentrations. The trend in calculated PAH ha lf-lives agrees with that expected if volatilization is a significant mechanism for loss from the canal with more volatile PAHs having short er half-lives, The higher persistence of phenanthrene compared to anth racene is consistent with the greater stability of phenanthrene and su ggests, with other physicochemical evidence, that other (reactive) mec hanisms may be involved, The results of this study demonstrate the fea sibility of the SPMD method for the measurement of residence times in aquatic and other compartments. Such information is essential for quan tifying contaminant behavior in the environment and providing insights into contaminant fate. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.