Variable air temperature response of gas-phase atmospheric polychlorinated biphenyls near a former manufacturing facility

Many investigations of gas-phase atmospheric PCB show a strong relationship between concentration and air temperature, especially near PCB sources. Comparative gas-phase atmospheric PCB trends during an annual temperature regime at two sites near a former PCB manufacturing plant and nearby PCB landfills in Anniston, AL, indicate a departure from this trend. The Mars Hill sampling site, located closest to the plant and landfills, shows an annual average SigmaPCB concentration of 27 ng m(-3) (ranging from 8.7 to 82 ng m(-3)) three times the average at Carter, 1.5 km away (9 ng m(-3), ranging from 1.1 to 39). However, total PCB and congener concentrations vary more with air temperature at Carter where PCB are evaporating from surfaces during warmer weather. The slopes of the Clausius-Clapeyron plots of 18 of the most concentrated congeners representing dichloro- through heptachlorobiphenyl homologues are significantly higher at the Carter site. While some of the atmospheric PCB at Mars Hill is derived from ground surface evaporation, the source of much of it apparently is the material buried in the landfills, which has different thermal properties than surface materials and is not in equilibrium with air temperature.