Petroleum hydrocarbons - a necessity of monitoring in a dredged material in the Polish coastal zone

Abstract

Petroleum hydrocarbons (PHCs) are toxic for the water organisms and in sediments they may last for a very long time. The Baltic Sea is an area exposed to the PHCs due to highly developed shipping. In Poland, there is a lack of legal standards specifying guidelines regarding handling dredged material containing PHCs, excavated in waterways, roadsteads, and in port basins, and there are no standards specifying their acceptable concentration in sediments. Therephore petroleum hydrocarbons in the excavated dredged material are rarely examined at the Polish coasts. In years 2009-2018 only 4% of sediments were examined in terms of their content. Indicated that only the sediments from the open sea did not contain PHCs, the other ones were very or moderately contaminated with PHCs. Collected results clearly indicate that sediment should be monitored in terms of the PHC content, in most cases should not be thrown back to the sea. In most cases they may be stored onshore, but only on wastelands, mainly industrial and transport areas. Some of them may also be used in the areas of cleaner lands, i.e. forests, wood- and bush-covered lands, recreation and leisure areas.