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Organic Contaminants in Urban Lake Sediments: A Preliminary Assessment

From the Proceedings of the 1989 Meetings of the Arizona Section - American Water Resources Association and the Hydrology Section - Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science - April 15, 1989, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada / Bottom sediments from several urban lakes located in the Phoenix metropolitan area were collected and analyzed for organic priority pollutants. The lakes selected for analysis were broadly representative of the diversity of lake characteristics found in the Phoenix area. That is, lakes were sampled that had different types of primary water sources and that were located in watersheds of differing degrees of urbanization. Preliminary results indicate that only nine of the 114 listed organic priority pollutants were found in measurable quantities in the sediments of the lakes surveyed. The pollutants detected were either phthalate esters or volatile or semi-volatile halogenated compounds. None of the pollutants were common to all the lakes sampled. Dibutyl phthalate was detected in three of the six lakes. A larger database is being developed and will be necessary to determine whether a statistical correlation exists between watershed characteristics and feedwater, and organic composition of lake sediments.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/296424
Date15 April 1989
CreatorsAmalfi, Frederick A., Sommerfeld, Milton R.
ContributorsDepartment of Botany, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287
PublisherArizona-Nevada Academy of Science
Source SetsUniversity of Arizona
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext, Proceedings
RightsCopyright ©, where appropriate, is held by the author.

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