Railway Right-of-Way Contaminants in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia: Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons
Wan, Michael T.
Ballast from five railway rights-of-way and the adjacent ditches flowing to salmon streams in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada, were sampled in 1989 to determine the occurrence and levels of 16 selected polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). Reference and background levels of PAH in ditches leading to fish streams were obtained from pristine parklands and agricultural lands. PAH levels in sediments reported by Goyette and Boyd (1989) for Burrard Inlet (Inner Harbour), the commercial harbour of Vancouver, British Columbia, were used for comparison. All 16 PAH were found in the ballasts and ditch sediments/water of the five railway rights-of-way. In the ballasts, total levels of the 16 PAH varied from 1.562-58.773 g/m², averaging 18.069 g/m². The mean concentration of the total 16 PAH in ditch sediments was 213.47 µg/g (range, 1.89-1168.71 µg/g). PAH were not consistently found in ditch water at all study sites, but at sites where they occurred, the selected 16 compounds had an average total concentration of 606.9 ug/L (range, 1-3515.9 µg/L). PAH were not detected in the ditches of pristine parklands but low concentrations were detected in some agricultural samples. The total level of the 16 PAH in sediments from railway ditches were respectively 205 and 40 times higher than levels found in the sediments of farmland ditches and Burrard Inlet. Some biological implications of PAH-contaminated sediments and water from railway ditches discharging into fish habitats are discussed.
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