Volatile organic compounds in an urban airborne environment adjacent to a municipal incinerator, waste collection centre and sewage treatment plant

The occurrence and temporal distribution of airborne volatile organic compo unds (VOC) at nine closely grouped locations in a suburban environment on t he edge of the coastline of the Southampton Water estuary, located on the c oastline of central southern England, was studied over six monthly periods spanning 1996-1997. The sampling sites circumscribed a juxtaposed municipal incinerator, waste collection and processing centre and sewage treatment p lant. Three sets of airborne samples being taken before and after the closu re of the municipal incinerator. VOC with volatilities of low to medium pol arity ranging broadly from those of n-butane to n-octadecane were the major focus of interest. Over 100 individual compounds were routinely found in l ocalised samples taken during the period of study. The types and concentrat ions of VOC identified partly reflect the imprint of the various waste proc essing operations on atmospheric VOC within the local environment. The most abundant VOC classes consisted of aromatic, chlorinated and organosulphide compounds, with smaller proportions of alkanes, alkenes and cycloalkane co mpounds. Compounds produced by sewage-processing and waste management opera tions, including volatile organosulphides and various oxygenated compounds, may occasionally exceed olfactory detection thresholds and represent a sou rce of potential odour complaints in the local urban environment. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.