Polychlorinated Biphenyls in Selected Sites in Pasig River and Laguna Lake in the Philippines Before and After a Big Flood Event Investigated Under the UNU East Asia Regional POPs Monitoring Project

Abstract

This paper reports the results of the 2009 United Nations University (UNU) East Asia Regional Monitoring of the Coastal Hydrosphere Project implemented in the Philippines. The monitoring activity focused on the concentrations of 16 specific congeners of Polychlorinated Biphenyls in selected sites in Pasig River and Laguna Lake for two sampling periods in August and in November, 2009. The results show that the total concentrations of PCBs detected in the sampling sites in August increased during the November sampling from 0.9-12.2 to 6.1-32 ng/L in Pasig River and from 0.1-0.9 to 2.9-10.8 ng/L in Laguna Lake. The increase in PCB concentrations on second sampling is attributed to the increase in contaminated sediments in the river sites and to the overflow of contaminated water in the lake sites; both of which could have been caused by the flooding event that occurred in September 2009.