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DISTRIBUTION OF ORGANIC AND ORGANOMETALLIC COMPOUNDS IN SEDIMENTS FROM THE GULF OF MEXICO
Citation:
Maruya, K., J. Ertel, K. Kannan, R. Lee, AND B. Loganathan. DISTRIBUTION OF ORGANIC AND ORGANOMETALLIC COMPOUNDS IN SEDIMENTS FROM THE GULF OF MEXICO. Presented at Annual Meeting of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Washington, DC, November 17 - 21, 1996.
Impact/Purpose:
Presentation
Description:
In 1994, over 200 sediment samples were collected in accordance with EPA's Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (EMAP) probabilistic sampling protocol from coastal and estuarine locations in the Louisianian Province (Gulf of Mexico). Organic extracts of homogenized aliquots were analyzed for PAHs, PCBs, organochlorine pesticides (including DDTs, chlordanes, endosulfans), organosphosphate insecticides and organotin compounds using high resolution GC with the appropriate detection technique. Of all target analyte classes, PAHs, were found in the highest concentration in these randomly-collected sediments. Roughly ten percent of sediments were found to have elevated levels of PAHs (greater than or equal to 1ppm dry wt.), most of which exhibited a combustion profile based on the relative distribution of alkylated homologs and their parent compounds. Several of these elevated samples were taken from Corpus Christi Bay (Texas) as part of a regional EMAP effort in 1994. Sediment concentrations of other organic classes were generally low (i.e.,