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EVALUATION OF PROTOCOLS FOR PESTICIDES AND PCB'S IN RAW WASTEWATER
Citation:
Caragay, A. AND P. Levins. EVALUATION OF PROTOCOLS FOR PESTICIDES AND PCB'S IN RAW WASTEWATER. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/2-79/166 (NTIS PB80133184), 1979.
Description:
The general EPA protocol for screening industrial effluents for priority pollutants (Federal Register 38, No. 75, Part II), has been tested for its applicability to the analysis of the priority pollutant pesticides and PCB's in raw wastewater. Raw wastewater from the municipal sewage treatment plant in Brockton, Massachusetts was dosed with 1-30 ppb of the priority pollutant pesticides and PCB's. The overall procedure evaluated consists of the following steps: extraction with 15% methylene chloride/hexane with centrifugation to break up the emulsion, concentration by Kuderna-Danish evaporation, removal of interferences by acetonitrile partition, chromatography on Florisil and Sephadex LH-20, and sulfur removal by treatment with mercury. Samples were assayed by gas chromatography using an electron capture detector. The data obtained show that the Kuderna-Danish evaporation step could be a significant source of sample loss unless the evaporation process is carried out at a fast rate. Treatment with mercury effectively cleans up the extracts with no significant loss of pesticides. Sample clean-up on a Sephadex LH-20 is recommended as an alternative to the Florisil column clean-up procedure. The method tested works well for parts per billion determination.