PCB Contamination at the LCP Chemicals Superfund Site, Brunswick, Georgia

Abstract

The use of PCBs at an industrial site in coastal Georgia has led to extensive contamination both on site and in the adjacent salt marsh. Congener-specific analyses have shown that high parts per million levels of PCBs, in a pattern resembling that of Aroclor 1268, exist in site soils and in inner marsh sediments. Although 2,3,7,8-TCDD toxic equivalents (TEQs) in Aroclor 1268 are relatively low, the concentration-weighted TEQs in these highly contaminated media are elevated. A 100-fold reduction in both PCBs and TEQs for outer marsh tidal creek sediments and high parts per billion levels of PCBs in forage/predator fish from nearby Purvis Creek suggest that PCB transport out of the heavily contaminated inner marsh may be dominated by ecological processes. Little or no change in the characteristic Aroclor 1268 congener signature in soil, sediment or fish samples underscores the mixture's environmental stability.