Monitoring the content of PAHs in the former sludge dump near the Seversky Donets River

Abstract

The concentration of industrial waste at specialized landfills often leads to forming a point source of pollution including the one with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in adjacent territories and environments. In this study, the level of 16 priority PAHs in technoginically formed sediments (TFS) of the former landfill for liquid industrial waste (LIW) was determined. The PAHs determination was performed using a new ecologically green subcritical water extraction method. The total PAHs content remains high and does not meet the main generally recognized standards after 30 years of closure of the landfill. The level of total PAHs content in the TFS of monitoring sites No.1 and No.2 were 6438.5 ± 75.9 μg kg-1 and 6015.6 ± 57.6 μg kg-1, respectively. These values indicate a high degree of PAHs contamination in both sites No. 1 and No.2. The total content of PAHs in TFS of the monitoring site No.3 was 1.5-1.6 times higher than in the rest of the studied sites (9509.6 ± 112.4 μg kg-1) indicating an extremely high degree of pollution in this area. Thus, the total content of priority polyarenes showed an extremely high degree of PAHs contamination in the former sludge dump near the Seversky Donets River.