Environ. Sci. Technol. 1996, 30, 969-974
Is the Hyde Park Dump, near the Niagara River, Still Affecting the Sediment of Lake Ontario? MICHAEL J. HOWDESHELL AND RONALD A. HITES* School of Public and Environmental Affairs and Department of Chemistry, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405
Fifteen dated sediment cores from the four Lake Ontario sedimentation basins were analyzed by electron capture, gas chromatographic mass spectrometry for three fluorinated compounds originating from the Hyde Park Dump near the Niagara River. The compound concentration profiles in the sediment are in good agreement with the history of the dumpsite’s use. The concentrations of the compounds start to increase in the early 1950s and maximize in about 1970 in the main portion of the lake. The Hyde Park Dump was closed in 1975; however, the compounds’ concentrations in the surficial sediments are still about 20% of their maximum. We attribute these relatively elevated levels to a combination of physical perturbations in Lake Ontario and continued migration of the compounds from the dumpsite. Using core burdens and concentration profile data, we conclude that the sediment of the Kingston Basin of Lake Ontario is not directly connected to the nearshore zone and that the compounds were transported to the Kingston Basin sequentially from the Rochester Basin. We also observed a change in relative abundances between the source and sediment for these compounds. The change was due to physical partitioning of the compounds between the sediment and aqueous phases in the lake.
Introduction Several hazardous waste dumpsites along the Niagara River in western New York have had a significant impact on Lake Ontario (1-8). Our laboratory previously found that one of these dumpsites, the Hyde Park Dump, was the source of a series of fluorinated compounds present in the sediment of Lake Ontario (9-12). Our work in the mid-1980s indicated that these fluorinated compounds were related to the production of 4-(trifluoromethyl)chlorobenzene and that these compounds had spread throughout Lake Ontario (9-12). The Hyde Park Dump is one of the largest along the Niagara River; it is located downstream of Niagara Falls in the northwestern corner of the city of Niagara Falls, NY. This dumpsite covers 15 acres, which are situated less than * Corresponding author e-mail address:
[email protected].
0013-936X/96/0930-0969$12.00/0
1996 American Chemical Society
FIGURE 1. Fluorinated compound structures and scheme showing their formation and relationship to each other (11).
1 km from the Niagara River. The Hyde Park Dump was operated by the Occidental Chemical Co. (formerly the Hooker Chemical Co.) from 1953 to 1975. Over this time, this dumpsite was used for the disposal of about 80 000 t of chemical waste (4), about 10% of which was associated with the production of 4-(trifluoromethyl)chlorobenzene (10). The fluorinated compounds our laboratory previously identified were industrial by products formed during the synthesis of 4-(trifluoromethyl)chlorobenzene (see compound A in Figure 1) (9, 10, 13). The synthetic precursor of this commercial product is 4-(trichloromethyl)chlorobenzene ( compound B), which can condense either in a head-to-tail reaction to give a heptachloro-substituted diphenylmethane (compound C) or in a head-to-head reaction to give an octachloro-substituted biphenyl (compound D). The heptachloro-substituted compound (C) is either oxidized and fluorinated or just fluorinated. The first pathway forms 2,4′-dichloro-5-(trifluoromethyl)-benzophenone, which we have referred to as compound 1. The second pathway forms difluoro-2,4′-dichloro-5-(trifluoromethyl)diphenylmethane, which we have referred to as compound 2. The octachloro-substituted biphenyl (D) is fluorinated to produce 2,2′-dichloro-5,5′-(trifluoromethyl)biphenyl, which we have referred to as compound 3-2. Small amounts (
