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Utility and Railway Right-of-Way Contaminants in British Columbia: Chlorophenols

Environment Canada, Conservation and Protection, Environmental Protection, Pacific & Yukon Region, 224 W. Esplanade Ave., North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V7M 3H7.

^* Corresponding author.

ABSTRACT

Utility and railway right-of-way ditches flowing to salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) streams in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada, were sampled in 1990 to determine the occurrence and levels of chlorophenols (CP). Ditches of pristine watershed areas, parklands, and agricultural lands were also sampled to establish background/reference levels of CP. While CP were not detected in ditches of pristine watershed areas and parklands, they were found in farmland, utility, and railway right-of-way ditches. In utility right-of-way ditches, CP in water adjacent to treated poles averaged 1408 µg/L, compared to a mean level of 13.6 µg/L 4 m downstream; in sediments collected from the same sites, the mean concentration of CP was respectively 139 mg/kg and 0.3 mg/kg. For railway right-of-way ditches, the mean level of CP in water adjacent to treated poles was 225 µg/L, in contrast to 3.8 µg/L 4 m downstream. Chlorophenol levels in ditch sediments of railway right-of-way with treated poles averaged 49.7 mg/kg, compared to 0.4 mg/kg in sediments of railway right-of-way ditches without treated poles. Soils at the base of utility poles registered a mean CP concentration of 2168 mg/kg, whereas those from railway ties averaged 38.6 mg/kg of CP. Low CP levels were found only in ditch sediments of farmlands. Although the biological implications of CP-contaminated ditch sediments are not well known, CP levels found in ditch water adjacent to treated poles exceeded the 96-h LC50 (lethal concentration of a chemical to 50% of the test fish population) of salmonids, while those found downstream were within the range reported harmful to the fish and aquatic invertebrates.