PAHs and PAEs in the surface sediments from Nenjiang River and the Second Songhua River, China: Distribution, composition and risk assessment.

The contamination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and phthalic acid esters (PAEs) in river sediments have attracted wide attention. However, the distribution characteristics of PAHs and PAEs in sediments of some rivers in China stay unclear, notably in some tributaries. To elucidate the distribution, sources, and risk of 16 priority PAHs and 6 priority PAEs in sediments of the Nenjiang River (NR) and the Second Songhua River (DR) in Northeast China, that were all the tributary of the Songhua River, a total of 42 surface sediment samples from 14 sampling locations were collected. The sediment samples included 76.5–9447 ng/g (mean=2069 ng/g) and 832–17,817 ng/g (mean=6392 ng/g) of the 16 PAHs and 6 PAEs, respectively, in total concentration. Of the 16 PAHs, BaA contributed the most, and DEHP and DBP were the most prevalent PAE compounds. According to the positive matrix factorization (PMF) model, three sources were identified: biomass combustion and vehicle emission, coal and coking combustion and petrogenic source, and contributed 66.81%, 16.96% and 16.23% of Σ 16 PAHs, respectively. The ecological risks posed by PAHs in the study are negligible, especially for BaA, which might cause frequent ecological risks to exposed organisms. The order of the PAEs' possible environmental risks was DEHP > DBP > DEP > DMP, and none of them are harmful to sensitive algae, crustaceans, or fish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]