@ 1978, by the American Society of ’ Limnology and Oceanography, Inc. Volatile chloro- and bromocarbons in coastal waters1

Contaminated coastal waters can contain nanomolar levels of C, and CZ halocarbons orig-inating through in situ synthesis from chlorine and through waste discharge. Haloforms are the major volatile products formed from chlorine. In freshwaters, CHCl, dominates with lesser amounts of CHBr, and the mix...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: George R. Helx, Rong Y. Hsu
Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
Format: Text
Language:English
Subjects:
Online Access:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.568.8885
http://www.aslo.org/lo/toc/vol_23/issue_5/0858.pdf
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Summary:Contaminated coastal waters can contain nanomolar levels of C, and CZ halocarbons orig-inating through in situ synthesis from chlorine and through waste discharge. Haloforms are the major volatile products formed from chlorine. In freshwaters, CHCl, dominates with lesser amounts of CHBr, and the mixed Cl-Br haloforms; however, above about 5 g-kg-’ salinity, CHBr, is virtually the only product when typical chlorine doses (10-100 PM) are used. On a molar basis,>4 % conversion of chlorine to haloforms was observed in some ex-periments. Samples from the Back River estuary (Maryland), which receives effluent from a very large urban wastewater treatment plant, contained CII,Cl,, CHCl,, Ccl,, CCl,=CIICl, and CCl,--CCl, at concentrations exceeding 1 nM. Even when winter ice cover minimized loss by volatilization, downstream mixing was nonconservative, suggesting that chemical or biological degradation processes occur. Under normal circumstances, however, volatilization followed by chemical degradation in the atmosphere is probably the most important loss mechanism. Data on possible biologic effects of these compounds are critically needed. Current interest in the geochemistry of