Spatial patterns of metals, PCDDs/Fs, PCBs, PBDEs and chemical status of sediments from a coastal lagoon (Pialassa Baiona, NW Adriatic, Italy)

The European Water Framework Directive (WFD) establishes a framework for the protection and improvement of all water bodies including transitional waters; its final objective is to achieve at least ‘good status’ by 2015. In the present work, a hierarchical sampling design was applied to analyze the influence of anthropogenic inputs on the spatial distribution of metals, polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) dibenzofurans (PCDFs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in sediment at four areas in Pialassa Baiona coastal lagoon. In order to assess the chemical status, levels of priority substances and other pollutants were compared with the recently developed national Environmental Quality Standards (EQS) and site specific background levels for metals. Levels of mercury and PCBs were particularly high and exceeded their national EQS values at all sampled areas, thus not contributing to the achievement of a good chemical status of this transitional water body according to the WFD classification.