Occurrence and Aquatic Ecological Risk Assessment of Typical Organic Pollutants in Water of Yangtze River Estuary

AbstractThe occurrence and distribution of organic pollutants were investigated and their initial aquatic ecological risks were assessed in water of the Yangtze River Estuary (YRE). A total of 18 samples were collected from South Branch of YRE during the flood season in August 2012. Out of 956 organic compounds, 23 organic pollutants were detected by GC-MS and NAGINATATM software which were dominated by phthalate esters (PAEs), petroleum hydrocarbons (PHCs) and substituted benzenes. The total concentration of detected 23 organic pollutants varied from 0.585 to 53.7μg/L in the studied sites. Moreover, the total amounts of PAEs (∑PAEs), PHCs (∑PHCs) and substituted benzenes (∑substituted benzenes) were in the range of 0.184-53.344μg/L, 0-0.164μg/L, and 0.196-1.559μg/L, respectively. The study revealed that PEC/PNEC ratios of 8 organic pollutants were higher than 1 (PEC: Predicted environmental concentration; PNEC: Predicted no effect concentration), while 3 of them Bis(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate, octadecane and nonadecane were found to be >100 and the remaining organic pollutants including diisobutyl phthalate, tridecane, dihexyl phthalate, methyl palmitate and methyl stearate ranged from 1 to 100. These results indicated significant ecological risks of the specific organic pollutants to the aquatic environment of YRE