Dispersion of organic contaminants from wastewater treatment outfall in Masan Bay, Korea

Abstract

Masan Bay is a land locked shallow water system with poor water circulation. The bay is surrounded by thickly populated cities with considerable industrialization. A wastewater tratment plant (WWTP) manages both domestic and industrial sewage from Masan and Changwon cites and empties the treated water into the bay. Since persistent chemicals of toxic nature escape this process an experiment was designed to investigate in sediments the distribution and dissipation of 5 major groups of agro- and industrial chemicals (51 chemicals in total) from the point of discharge in all directions of the bay. Target chemicals showed patterns of distribution that agreed with expected spatial ditribution model and minor deviations due to diffuse sources of input (e. g. runoff from streams and creeks; ship building and port activities). Thus it is understood that WWTP plays an important role in distributing pollutants to Masan Bay. © 2010 The Korean Society of Environmental Risk Assessment and Health Science and Springer.