PCB congeners in precipitation, wash out ratios and depositional fluxes within the Baltic Sea region, Europe

Concentrations of PCB congeners were determined in precipitation and the annual and seasonal depositional fluxes were calculated for 16 (mostly rural) stations around the Baltic Sea during 1990–1993. The concentrations of individual congeners in precipitation were found to be influenced by atmospheric concentrations of PCBs, ambient temperature, precipitation volume and physico-chemical properties of the compounds. Median levels of PCBs in precipitation differed one order of magnitude between stations. When analyzing all data together to obtain regional trends, concentrations of PCBs in precipitation decreased with increasing temperature. This relationship was the same for all stations but differed in the magnitude of the slope for individual congeners. Low chlorinated PCB congeners showed steeper slopes for the temperature relationship than did high chlorinated congeners, a result explained by high atmospheric concentrations of the low chlorinated congeners during low temperatures. Annual wash out ratios were between 31 and 72×103 and tended to be higher for the high chlorinated congeners. Wash out ratios decreased with increasing temperature for all congeners except PCB-33. At snow scavenging events, the wash out ratio of PCBs increased with a factor of 2. Latitudinal trends for PCB concentrations in precipitation and deposition were generally not statistically significant. The calculated yearly deposition of PCBs to the Baltic Sea was 390 and 5–18 kg for individual congeners, with PCB-138 having the highest flux. Deposition of PCB congeners varied seasonally, with a factor between 2 and 3, and was generally highest during fall. Relatively higher deposition of low chlorinated congeners compared to high chlorinated congeners was found during winter.