Compound Impacts of Fluvial Flooding and Sea-Level Rise on Benzo[a]pyrene Transport in the Lower Darby Creek Area SuperfundSite, Pennsylvania, USA

The compound effects of fluvial flooding, tidal dynamics, and sea-level rise (SLR) have the potential to mobilize pollutants at contaminated sites, which are often situated in flood-prone areas. We assessed the compound effects of these flood drivers on benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P)-contaminated sediments in the Lower Darby Creek Area (LDCA) Superfund Site in Pennsylvania, USA. B[a]P, ubiquitous in the sediments of LDCA, is a known human carcinogen and is an indicator of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the environment. The LDCA is tidally influenced via the Delaware Bay, is projected to experience sea-level rise, and is situated within an active river floodplain. These conditions lead to potential B[a]P transport within and out of the LDCA. Using a one-way coupling of the Hydrologic Engineering Center-River Analysis System (HEC-RAS) model and the Water Quality Analysis Simulation Program (WASP), we demonstrate that by 2050 fluvial flooding will continue to be the major driver of contaminant transport in the LDCA system. Fluvial-driven sediment transport defines B[a]P deposition, which is largely influenced by tributary inputs and the distribution of B[a]P in floodplain sediments. The complex patterns of B[a]P redistribution at the LDCA, influenced by multiple drivers of flooding, demonstrate the utility of a coupled modeling approach to inform remediation and community resilience.

Impact/Purpose

It is critical to understand the distribution of B[a]P at contaminated sites because it is an indicator of total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), many of which are carcinogenic<span style='mso-element:field-begin'> ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"roFIrcqH","properties":{"formattedCitation":"\\super 18\\uc0\\u8211{}20\\nosupersub{}","plainCitation":"18¿20","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":2973,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/5917431/items/Z2SLJIAY"],"itemData":{"id":2973,"type":"article-journal","abstract":"The impact of meteorological factors on the transport behavior and distribution of volatile and semi-volatile organic pollutants has become an area of increasing concern. Here, we analyzed seasonal variation in climatic variables including wind, temperature, and precipitation to quantitatively assess the impact of these factors on the multimedia transport and fate of BaP in the continental region of China using a Berkeley-Trent (BETR) model. The advective rates of air exhibited an increasing trend of autumn (1.830 mol/h) < summer (1.975 mol/h) < winter (2.053 mol/h) < spring (2.405 mol/h) in association with increasing wind speed, indicating that lower atmospheric BaP concentrations are present in regions with high wind speeds and advective rates. The air-soil transport rates (0.08¿45.55 mol/h) in winter were higher than in summer (0.07¿32.41 mol/h), while low winter temperatures accelerate BaP accumulation in terrestrial ecosystems due to cold deposition. Cold deposition effects were more evident in northern regions than in southern regions. Further, increasing precipitation enhanced air-soil and soil-freshwater transport rates with the correlation coefficients of r = 0.445 and r = 0.598 respectively, while decreasing the air-vegetation transport rates (r = 0.475), thereby contributing to the accumulation of BaP in soils and freshwaters. In the light of the potential dispersion of BaP pollution at regional and global scales affected by these key climatic factors, this indirectly indicated the impact of future climate change on the BaP transport. Thus, flexible policy interventions should be enacted to slow future climate change.","container-title":"Environmental Pollution","DOI":"10.1016/j.envpol.2021.118404","ISSN":"0269-7491","journalAbbreviation":"Environmental Pollution","page":"118404","source":"ScienceDirect","title":"Seasonal variability in multimedia transport and fate of benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) affected by climatic factors","volume":"292","author":[{"family":"Cao","given":"Xianghui"},{"family":"Huo","given":"Shouliang"},{"family":"Zhang","given":"Hanxiao"},{"family":"Ma","given":"Chunzi"},{"family":"Zheng","given":"Jiaqi"},{"family":"Wu","given":"Fengchang"},{"family":"Song","given":"Shuai"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2022",1,1]]}}},{"id":2972,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/5917431/items/8M3E5N4F"],"itemData":{"id":2972,"type":"article-journal","abstract":"SESAMe v3.0, a spatially explicit multimedia fate model with 50 × 50 km2 resolution, has been developed for China to predict environmental concentrations of benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) using an atmospheric emission inventory for 2007. Model predictions are compared with environmental monitoring data obtained from an extensive review of the literature. The model performs well in predicting multimedia concentrations and distributions. Predicted concentrations are compared with guideline values; highest values with some exceedances occur mainly in the North China Plain, Mid Inner Mongolia, and parts of three northeast provinces, Xi¿an, Shanghai, and south of Jiangsu province, East Sichuan Basin, middle of Guizhou and Guangzhou. Two potential future scenarios have been assessed using SESAMe v3.0 for 2030 as BaP emission is reduced by (1) technological improvement for coal consumption in energy production and industry sectors in Scenario 1 (Sc1) and (2) technological improvement and control of indoor biomass burning for cooking and indoor space heating and prohibition of open burning of biomass in 2030 in Scenario 2 (Sc2). Sc2 is more efficient in reducing the areas with exceedance of guideline values. Use of SESAMe v3.0 provides insights on future research needs and can inform decision making on options for source reduction.","container-title":"Environmental Science & Technology","DOI":"10.1021/acs.est.5b00474","ISSN":"0013-936X","issue":"23","journalAbbreviation":"Environ. Sci. Technol.","note":"publisher: American Chemical Society","page":"13868-13877","source":"ACS Publications","title":"Environmental Distributions of Benzo[a]pyrene in China: Current and Future Emission Reduction Scenarios Explored Using a Spatially Explicit Multimedia Fate Model","title-short":"Environmental Distributions of Benzo[a]pyrene in China","volume":"49","author":[{"family":"Zhu","given":"Ying"},{"family":"Tao","given":"Shu"},{"family":"Price","given":"Oliver R."},{"family":"Shen","given":"Huizhong"},{"family":"Jones","given":"Kevin C."},{"family":"Sweetman","given":"Andrew J."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2015",12,1]]}}},{"id":2968,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/5917431/items/338KUWSR"],"itemData":{"id":2968,"type":"article-journal","abstract":"Benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) has been proven to be toxic and carcinogenic. Since 2010, the European Union officially established target values for BaP concentrations in ambient air. In this study BaP concentrations over Europe have been modelled using a modified version of the chemistry transport model Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) which includes the relevant reactions of BaP. CMAQ has been run using different emission datasets for the years 1980, 2000, and 2020 as input data. In this study, the changes in BaP concentrations between 1980 and 2020 are evaluated and regions which exceed the European annual target value of 1 ng/m3 are identified, i.e. the Po Valley, the Paris metropolitan area, the Rhine-Ruhr area, Vienna, Madrid, and Moscow. Additionally, the impact of emission reductions on atmospheric concentrations of BaP is investigated. Between 1980 and 2000, half of the BaP emission reductions are due to lower emissions from industrial sources. These emission reductions, however, only contribute to one third of the total ground-level BaP concentration reduction. Further findings are that between 2000 and 2020, a large part (40%) of the BaP concentration reduction is not due to changes in BaP emissions but caused by changes in emissions of criteria pollutants which have an impact on the f

Citation

Woznicki, S., J. Barber, J. Butcher, J. Essoka, H. Maureen, M. Mehaffey, B. Pluta, A. Shabani, AND P. Whung. Compound Impacts of Fluvial Flooding and Sea-Level Rise on Benzo[a]pyrene Transport in the Lower Darby Creek Area SuperfundSite, Pennsylvania, USA. American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, 5(7):3613-3627, (2025). [DOI: 10.1021/acsestwater.4c00814]

DOI: Compound Impacts of Fluvial Flooding and Sea-Level Rise on Benzo[a]pyrene Transport in the Lower Darby Creek Area SuperfundSite, Pennsylvania, USA