CIE 596Z/CIE728 – Fate and Transport of Pollutants

Presentation 1
Introduction

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 Environmental Modeling

Where do all the chemicals go? Are they with us forever? How are they degraded? Such issues
pertain to the fate, transport, and persistence of chemicals in the environment.

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 Environmental Modeling

We are impacting larger and larger domains: oceans, not just coastal waters, the stratosphere, not just
urban air; deep groundwater aquifers, not just surface waters.

Some 1000-1500 new chemicals are manufactured each year, with perhaps 60,000 chemicals in daily use.

Heavy metal pollutants are pervasive and, perhaps, are a greater problem than organic chemicals based
on their persistence.

Water quality criteria of standards can be exceeded under natural conditions in a few cases, such as
226Ra and Ba in drinking waters and copper in cold-water fisheries.

Generally, it is human activities that cause elevated concentrations of metals such as mercury, lead,
cadmium, copper, and zinc in surface waters.

Bioavailability and toxicity depend strongly on the chemical species.

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 Scope of Environmental Modeling

Scope and rational for environmental modeling:

1. To gain a better understanding of the fate and transport of chemicals by quantifying

their reactions, speciation, and movement

2. To determine chemical exposure concentrations to aquatic organisms and/or humans in

the past, or future

3. To predict future conditions under various loading scenarios or management action

alternatives

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 Scope of Environmental Modeling

Water quality criteria are promulgated to account for acute and chronic effects levels using
frequency and duration of exposure.

A very brief exposure to a relatively high concentration may be less harmful than a prolonged
exposure to a lower concentration.

Chemical speciation models are coupled with kinetic transport models for determining fate
and chemical speciation.

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 Mass Balances
The fate of chemicals in the aquatic environment is determined by two factors; their reactivity and the
rate of their physical transport through the environment.

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 Mass Balances
The key elements in a mass balance are:

1. A clearly defined control volume

2. A knowledge of inputs and outputs that cross the boundary of the control volume
3. A knowledge of the transport characteristics within the control volume and across its boundaries
4. A knowledge of the reaction kinetics within the control volume

𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴 𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤𝑤 𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣 = 𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀 𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 − 𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀 𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜 ∓ 𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅

If the chemical is conservative, the “Reactions” term is zero

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 Environmental Modeling and Ecotoxicology

From knowledge of only four parameters (octanol/water partition coefficient, Henry’s law constant,
dissociation constant, and sorption spectrum) one can estimate rate constants for many compounds via strict
chemical hydrolysis, photodegradation, volatilization, sorption, and bioconcentration.

Less progress has been made on predicting biotransformation.

Many persistent pollutants are present in a vapor phase during transport from land to fresh water and from
continent to ocean.

For example, substances such as DDT (Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane), volatile metals (Hg), and metalloids
(As, Se) have low vapor pressure and can be released to the atmosphere.

Transport of pollutants from air to water and from land to water have become increasingly important
pathways for the occurrence of water pollution