RARE EARTH ELEMENTS AND PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS IN THE VENETIAN COASTAL ENVIRONMENT

The Venetian coastal area is an environment characterized by a strong anthropogenic impact, and its quality level is very important because of local economical activities based on it, like tourism or fishing. In the context of the Water Framework Directive (WFD, 2000/60/EC), the project Q-ALiVe (Qualità dell’Ambiente Litoraneo Veneto) has the aim of taking an image of the quality of the Venetian coastal area, and eventually to find how and where rivers contamination could influence the environmental quality. We studied an area going from the mouth of the Adige river to the Malomocco inlet of the Venice lagoon (including the mouth of the Brenta river and the Chioggia lagoon inlet), to distance from the coast of up to about a kilometer. In this work we presented the data relative to rare earth elements (REEs) and Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) as PCBs, PBDEs and PAHs, in samples of water. Samples were collected during four different sampling campaigns, covering different seasons (June 2011, august 2011, September 2011, November 2011); in each sampling campaign we collected 10 samples of superficial waters for POPs, 21 superficial waters for trace elements and 21 deep water for trace elements. Analytical samples procedures for POPs include liquid-liquid continuous extraction, followed by an automated purification step (Power Prep, Fluid Management Systems, USA), with neutral silica columns. Analyse were made by HRGC-HRMS (PCBs) or HRGC-LRMS (PAHs and PBDEs). Quantifications were made by isotope dilution. The content of REEs, both in non-filtered and filtered water, was determined by sample acidification with HNO3, dilution and then analysis by plasma sector field plasma mass spectrometry (ICPSFMS). Quantifications were made by external calibration. Results suggest a negligible influence of rivers contamination to the quality of the sea facing the city of Chioggia and the Venice lagoon. Funds for this work were provided, in the framework of Q-ALiVe Project, by the Regione del Veneto - L.R. 15/07.