ASTM D7363-13a

5.1 This method directly determines the concentrations of dissolved PAH concentrations in environmental sediment pore water samples. The method is important from an environmental regulatory perspective because it can achieve the analytical sensitivities to meet the goals of the USEPA narcosis model for protecting benthic organisms in PAH contaminated sediments. Regulatory methods using solvent extraction have not achieved the wide calibration ranges from nanograms to milligrams per litre and the required levels of detection in the nanogram-per-litre range. In addition, conventional solvent extraction methods require large aliquot volumes (litre or larger), use of large volumes of organic solvents, and filtration to generate the pore water. This approach entails the storage and processing of large volumes of sediment samples and loss of low molecular weight PAHs in the filtration and solvent evaporation steps.

5.2 This method can be used to determine nanogram to milligram per litre PAH concentrations in pore water. Small volumes of pore water are required for SPME extraction, only 1.5 mL per determination and virtually no solvent extraction waste is generated.

1.1 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) narcosis model for benthic organisms in sediments contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is based on the concentrations of dissolved PAHs in the interstitial water or “pore water” in sediment. This test method covers the separation of pore water from PAH-impacted sediment samples, the removal of colloids, and the subsequent measurement of dissolved concentrations of the required 10 parent PAHs and 14 groups of alkylated daughter PAHs in the pore water samples. The “24 PAHs” are determined using solid-phase microextraction (SPME) followed by Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS) analysis in selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode. Isotopically labeled analogs of the target compounds are introduced prior to the extraction, and are used as quantification references.

1.2 Lower molecular weight PAHs are more water soluble than higher molecular weight PAHs. Therefore, USEPA-regulated PAH concentrations in pore water samples vary widely due to differing saturation water solubilities that range from 0.2 µg/L for indeno[1,2,3-cd]pyrene to 31 000 µg/L for naphthalene. This method can accommodate the measurement of microgram per litre concentrations for low molecular weight PAHs and nanogram per litre concentrations for high molecular weight PAHs.

1.3 The USEPA narcosis model predicts toxicity to benthic organisms if the sum of the toxic units (ΣTU

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