Environmental origin, chemical transport, and fate of hazardous pollutants in atmospheric and aquatic systems in the Mid-Atlantic region

Concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were measured in air and precipitation samples at atmospheric monitoring stations located throughout the state of New Jersey as part of the New Jersey Atmospheric Deposition Network (NJADN). The monitoring stations were selected based upon their differing land-use regimes, varying from urban/industrial to rural. PAH concentrations vary spatially across New Jersey with the highest concentrations occurring at the most heavily urban/industrial locations. Although the absolute concentrations vary spatially, the PAH profiles are statistically similar at all nine sampling sites indicating that the mix of sources around New Jersey is the same. Using this concentration data, estimates of three modes of atmospheric deposition fluxes were made. The magnitude of the gas absorption fluxes is driven by gas phase concentrations and wind speed. Wet deposition fluxes are controlled by gas and particle phase concentrations, as well as the precipitation amount. The magnitude of dry particle deposition is well-correlated with the degree of urbanization/industrialization with the largest fluxes measured at the two most highly urban/industrialized areas. Source apportionment results applying the Positive Matrix Factorization model on PAH air concentration data from New Brunswick yielded 7 factors: oil combustion (representing 5% of the total SigmaPAH concentrations), gasoline motor vehicle emissions (7%), diesel emissions (6%), natural gas combustion (24%), surface-to-air volatilization (19%), evaporative, uncombusted petroleum (18%), as well as an unexplained "other" source (20%). PMF was also applied to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) collected in the water column of the New York-New Jersey Harbor estuary to determine the dominant sources of PCBs to the estuary. Three factors were identified accounting for 56.8%, 18.6%, and 22.5% of the explained variability in SigmaPCB concentrations, respectively. Overall, PCB sources from the Upper Hudson contribute at least 41% (Factor 2 + Factor 3) of the total SigmaPCB composition of the water column of the estuary. The remaining 57% (Factor 1) is attributed to an unknown source of PCBs that is statistically identical to a "non-weathered" AROCLOR 1248 mixture suggesting that there may be a large downstream source of PCBs to the water of the New York-New Jersey Harbor estuary.