Persistent Organic Pollutant in the Venetian coastal environment

The Venetian coastal area is characterized by a strong anthropogenic impact and its quality is very important because of local economical activities, such as tourism or fishing. In the context of the Water Framework Directive (WFD, 2000/60/EC), the aim of the project Q-ALiVe (Qualità dell’Ambiente Litoraneo Veneto) is to check the environmental quality of the Venetian coastal area and whether rivers contamination could influence it. We studied an area going from the mouth of the Adige river to the Malamocco 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 Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) as PCBs, PBDEs and PAHs, in samples of seawater. Samples were collected during four different sampling campaigns, in different seasons (June 2011, August 2011, September 2011, November 2011); in each sampling campaign we collected 10 samples of surface water. Analytical samples procedures for POPs include liquid-liquid continuous extraction, followed by an automated purification step, with neutral silica columns. Analysis were made by HRGC-HRMS (PCBs) or HRGC-LRMS (PAHs and PBDEs). Quantification was made by isotope dilution. 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.