Monitoring of event-based mobilization of hydrophobic pollutants in rivers: Calibration of turbidity as a proxy for particle facilitated transport in field and laboratory

Abstract

Transport of many pollutants in rivers is coupled to mobilization of suspended particles which typically occurs during floods. Since the amount of total suspended solids (TSS) in rivers can be monitored by turbidity measurements this may be used as a proxy for the total concentration of particle associated pollutants such as PAHs, PCBs, etc. and several heavy metals. Online turbidity measurements (e.g. by optical backscattering sensors) would then also allow for an assessment of particle and pollutant flux dynamics if once calibrated against TSS and total pollutant concentrations for a given catchment. In this study, distinct flood and thus turbidity events were sampled at high temporal resolution in three contrasting sub-catchments of the River Neckar in Southwest Germany (Ammer, Goldersbach, Steinlach) as well as in the River Neckar itself and investigated for the total amount of PAHs and TSS in water; turbidity (NTU) and grain size distributions of suspended solids were determined as well. Laboratory experiments were performed with natural river bed sediments from different locations (Ammer) to investigate PAH concentrations, TSS and turbidity during sedimentation of suspended particles under controlled conditions (yielding smaller and smaller suspended particles and TSS with time). Laboratory and field results agreed very well and showed that turbidity and TSS were linearly correlated over an extended turbidity range up to 2000NTU for the field samples and up to 8000NTU in lab experiments. This also holds for total PAH concentrations which can be reasonably well predicted based on turbidity measurements and TSS vs. PAHs relationships — even for high turbidity values observed during flood events (>2000NTU). Total PAH concentrations on suspended solids were independent of grain size of suspended particles. This implies that for the rivers investigated the sorption capacity of particles did not change significantly during the observed events.