Persistence of Nonylphenol Ethoxylate Surfactants and Their Primary Degradation Products in Sediments from near a Municipal Outfall in the Strait of Georgia, British Columbia, Canada

Abstract

near the Iona municipal outfall and were analyzed for nonylphenol (NP) and its ethoxylate compounds (NPnEOs). We used normal-phase liquid chromatography with electrospray mass spectrometric detection to determine concentrations of ethoxylates from n ) 1 to n ) 19. Over half the NPnEO inventory in marine sediments resides in ethoxylates of chain length greater than n ) 2, suggesting that analyses limited to short-chain ethoxylates (n ) 2) are under-reporting total NPnEO by a factor of 2. The NPnEO vertical profiles and oligomer distributions in dated sediment cores suggest that little degradation occurs once these compounds enter the sediments: the half-life for these compounds is estimated to be greater than 60 yr. The lack of change in NPnEO oligomer distribution with age suggests that degradation by chain shortening does not occur significantly. A rough inventory shows that over 30 t of NPnEO resides in Fraser River Delta sediments near the Iona municipal outfall and that the entire Strait of Georgia sediments contain over 170 t of NPnEO.

Distribution and Cycling of Suspended Particles Inferred from Transmissivity in the Strait of Georgia, Haro Strait and Juan de Fuca Strait

“…e Contaminant Cycling Particle-reactive contaminants, including heavy metals such as lead and mercury, nonylphenol ethoxylates, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, and radionuclides, are sequestered in the bottom sediments of the Strait of Georgia, largely in, or near, the prograding delta Shang et al, 1999;Yunker et al, 1999). The rate of resuspension of contaminated bottom sediments is not known.…”

Occurrence of trace organic contaminants in Bohai Bay and its adjacent Nanpaiwu River, North China

“…The residual 4-NP in the aqueous environment predominantly stems from the wide use of nonylphenol polyethoxylate (NPEOs) surfactants of various ethoxylate chain lengths. While much research has focused on NP monitoring in aquatic environments, there have been few studies on the occurrence of its precursor, NPEOs with an ethoxylate length of more than 2 (Shang et al, 1999;Jonkers et al, 2003).…”

Sediment redox tracers in Strait of Georgia sediments – Can they inform us of the loadings of organic carbon from municipal wastewater?

“…112 Based on Ag as an indicator of sewage inputs (Sañudo-Wilhelmy and Flegal, 1992; Gobeil, 117 1999), we used the surface sediment map of Ag concentration produced by Gordon (1997) (Fig. 118 2) together with the nonylphenol ethoxylate map constructed by Shang et al (1999) to select 119 coring locations within the direct influence of municipal outfall particulates (GVRD-2, -3, and -120 4), and cores distant from such influence (GVRD-1, 5, 6, 7). GVRD-3 was located 0.5 km north 121 of the Iona Island outfall, which has its diffuser section of pipe extending between the 60 and 90 122 m isobaths, while GVRD-2 was located almost equidistant (~13 km) from the Lions Gate and 123…”