Behaviour of polychlorinated biphenyls contaminating soil near Zadar

This study analysed PCB-contaminated natural soil excavated from an area adjacent to an electrical transformer station in Zadar, Croatia. For one year, PCB concentrations were measured in the soil and leachate water under natural climatic conditions. After 12 months, a negligible quantity of Aroclor 1248 (0.024% in average) and a total of seven key PCB congeners (IUPAC No: PCB-28, PCB-52, PCB-101, PCB-118, PCB-138, PCB-153, and PCB-180) were leached through the soils into water collected under lysimeters (0.032% in average). Although the amounts of leached PCBs were relatively small, their range 2 microg L(-1) to 15 microg L(-1) substantially exceeds the maximal allowed concentration of total PCBs in fishponds which is 1 ng L(-1). Soil samples were taken on two occasions from three depths from each lysimeter. The distribution of total PCBs as Aroclor 1248 equivalents and seven individual PCB congeners was determined within soil layers before and after planting seeds. In all soil plots the content of total seven PCBs and some individual PCB congeners in the surface soil layers significantly decreased. The total content of the seven PCB congeners in the surface soil layer of all soil plots decreased between 19.0% (soil plot 2) and 47.6% (soil plot 1) and in the middle soil layer between 8.1% (soil plot 4) and 37.4% (soil plot 1). PCB-28 and PCB-52 showed the highest percent of removal in all soil plots after 12 months of the experiment. The most important mechanism of removal of "lighter" congeners may be evaporation from the soil surface. Generally, our results showed that the PCBs accumulated in the deepest level of the soil, probably due to vertical transport and decreased evaporation. Some of the PCB content was lost to their degradation in the rhizosphere of the plants growing on the analysed soil plots.