SAMPLING THE HUDSON RIVER ESTUARY FOR PCBS USING MULTIPLATE ARTIFICIAL SUBSTRATE SAMPLERS AND CONGENER-SPECIFIC GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY IN 1991

During the summer of 1991, multiplate artificial substrate samplers were deployed at five locations in the Hudson River from Troy to Poughkeepsie, New York. The sedimentary material that collected on these plates was fractionated and analyzed using a congener-specific method for PCB content. The results were compared intrasite, intersite, and across time. We found no difference between the PCB congener distribution patterns in the coarse and fine fractions, as determined by linear regression. We also found little evidence of intersite differentiation - we found no discernible difference in PCB congener distribution, but we did find a difference in magnitude. The 1991 results were then compared to the results from a previous study conducted from 1977 to 1985. We found that over the studied 120 km stretch of the river there has been a 3.7 +/- 1.2% per annum decline in PCB multiplate residue since 1983.