PCBs and OCPs in sediments from Hongfeng Reservoir in Guizhou Province, China

In this research, chlorinated hydrocarbons （polychlorinated biphenyls and organochlorine pesticides） were measured by GC-ECD in sediments from the Hongfeng Reservoir area. The concentrations of total PCBs range from 3.2 to 31.6 ng/g, among which PCB28, PCB52 are the major congeners with the concentrations from 0.5 to 4.6 ng/g, and from 0.4 to 28.1 ng/g, respectively. The concentrations of these pollutants decrease from surface to bottom, while the concentrations at 1-4 cm are lower than at 5-8 cm, suggesting the decline of PCBs input. TOC concentrations of sediment are found in a significant positive correlation with those of PCBs, suggesting that PCBs are mainly adsorbed on organic matter and particles. HCHs and DDTs are the predominant organochlorine pesticides with the concentrations ranging from 1.6 to 8.9 ng/g （average 3.2 ng/g） and 0.9 to 25.7 ng/g （average 7.8 ng/g）, respectively. β-HCH and γ-HCH （lindane） are the predominant HCH isomers from sediments, and p, p＇-DDE and p, p＇-DDT are the predominant DDT isomers. DDT/DDE＋DDD and α-HCH/γ-HCH ratios range from 0.6 to 0.9 and 0.1 to 3.0, respectively, which indicates more use of lindane than technical mixtures of HCHs before, and also suggests changes in HCHs and DDTs in the environment. The high values of β-HCH and p, p＇-DDE also show that atmospheric input is one of the important sources of the Hongfeng Reservoir, because β-HCH and p, p＇-DDE are stable and have low Sw and Pv so that they can be easily transferred over a long range in atmosphere.

PCBs and OCPs in sediments from Hongfeng Reservoir in Guizhou Province, China