Wet and dry atmospheric deposition of toxic metals and PAHS near New England coastal waters

Two major campaigns to measure atmospheric deposition in the wet and dry phase of several toxic metals and PAH were conducted near the coast of New England. In 1992/1993 the deposition was measured continuously for a whole year at biweekly periods at two sites: Nahant, at the tip of a 5 km peninsula jutting Southward into Massachusetts Bay, about 16 km northeast from downtown Boston, and 12 km from Logan International Airport, and Truro, near the tip of Cape Cod, about 95 km southeast from Boston. Dry PAH did not travel over long distances, and were deposited near the emitting sources. Dry deposition was dominated by the benzofluoranthenes (14.5%), fluoranthene (13.8%), phenanthrene (12.7%), anthracene (11.5%), and pyrene (10.4%). For nine Nahant dry samples, the chemical mass balance model was used to apportion the source categories that contribute to dry deposition of PAH. Jet aircraft contributed 24-47%, gasoline vehicles 25-42%, diesel vehicles 8-26%, wood combustion 5-23%, and others 1-5%. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 224th ACS National Meeting (Boston, MA 8/18-22/2002).

Wet and dry atmospheric deposition of toxic metals and PAHS near New England coastal waters Conference Paper