Distribution and Trophic Transfer of Short-Chain Chlorinated Paraffins in an Aquatic Ecosystem Receiving Effluents from a Sewage Treatment Plant

Abstract

Short-chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs) are an extremely complex group of industrial chemicals and found to be potential persistent organic pollutants (POPs), and thus have attracted extensive concern worldwide. In this study, influent, effluent, and sludge were collected from a large sewage treatment plant (STP) in Beijing, China. Water, sediment, and aquatic species were also collected from a recipient lake that receives effluents discharged from the STP. These samples were then analyzed to investigate the effect of STP effluent on distribution and trophic transfer of SCCPs in the local aquatic ecosystem. Concentrations of total SCCPs (ΣSCCPs) in lake water and surface sediments were found in the range 162-176 ng/L and 1.1-8.7 μg/g (dry weight, dw), respectively. Vertical concentration profiles of sediment cores showed ΣSCCPs decreased exponentially with increasing depth. Specific congener composition analysis in sediment layers indicated possible in situ biodegradation might be occurring. High bioaccumulation of SCCPs was observed in the sampled aquatic species. The bioaccumulation factor (BAF) generally increased with the number of chlorines in the SCCP congeners. A significantly positive correlation between lipid-normalized ΣSCCPs concentration and trophic levels (R(2) = 0.65, p < 0.05) indicate that SCCPs can biomagnify through the food chain in the effluent-receiving aquatic ecosystem.

Short-chain chlorinated paraffins in marine organisms from the Pearl River Estuary in South China: Residue levels and interspecies differences

“…3). Similar results were also reported previously between bioaccumulation factors (BAFs) and the carbon and chlorine atoms in many other studies (Houde et al, 2008;Zeng et al, 2011a;Ma et al, 2014b). These results implied a high biomagnification potential for the SCCP formula groups with the longer carbon chain and higher chlorine content, which may be partly attributed to their higher log K OW and the elimination potential of the shorter chained CPs.…”

“…A similar congener distribution of SCCPs was also observed between organisms and the habitat in an aquatic ecosystem receiving effluents from a sewage treatment plant (Zeng et al, 2011a). Hence, more comprehensive sampling including environmental samples is necessary for further evaluating the fate and bioaccumulation of SCCPs.…”

“…Consequently, the congeners with more carbon atoms are more prone to be absorbed to suspended particulate matter and to be subsequently deposited to sediments, while the short chain congeners are more easily distributed in the water. The fact that the relative abundance of C 10 -SCCPs was higher in water than in sediment has been reported in many aquatic environments, such as Liaodong Bay in North China (Ma et al, 2014b) and Gaobeidian Lake, a freshwater lake receiving effluents from a sewage treatment plant (Zeng et al, 2011a). Benthic invertebrates, such as shrimp and bivalves are exposed more frequently to the sediment than the fish inhabiting in the pelagic and mesopelagic layer, which could cause a lower abundance of C 10 congeners.…”

“…In general, CPs are divided into three groups according to their carbon chain length: short chain CPs (C 10-13 , SCCPs), medium chain CPs (C 14-17 , MCCPs) and long chain CPs (C 18-30 , LCCPs) (Feo et al, 2009). Among different CP groups, SCCPs have attracted increasing attention in the last decade due to their persistence (Iozza et al, 2008), bioaccumulation (Houde et al, 2008;Zeng et al, 2011a;Basconcillo et al, 2015), toxicity to organisms (Warnasuriya et al, 2010;Geng et al, 2015Geng et al, , 2016, and high potential for long-distance atmospheric transport (Reth et al, 2006;Strid et al, 2013). SCCPs have been placed on the toxic release inventory in the European Union, Japan, Canada, and the United States, and are classified as priority toxic substances in the United States (UNEP, 2015a).…”

“…China is the largest producer of CPs in the world, and the production volume has rapidly increased from 24.2 kt/year in 1990 to about 1000 kt/year in 2009 (Chen et al, 2011;Zeng et al, 2011a). As high production volume chemicals, CPs can be inevitably released into the environment during the production, storage, transportation, usage, and disposal or recycling of CPs and CP-based products.…”