Transport of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) in the Scheldt Estuary simulated with the water quality model WASP

The main processes that govern the behaviour of the industrial compounds polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) in the scheldt Estuary are reviewed. It appears that tidal hydrodynamics, suspended sediment transport, and hydrophobic sorption regulate the distribution of PCB within the estuary. The water quality model WASP is applied to simulate the present spatial distribution of 12 selected PCB isomers. The simulations are performed under average hydrodynamic and suspended sediment transport regimes. Calculated evolution profiles of the dissolved and sorbed concentrations in the water column indicate a high accumulation of the PCB in the zone of the turbidity maximum. The simulated distributions of the sorbed PCB, suspended sediment and salinity in the water column agree with the observations, but more measurements are needed in order to verify the predictability of the simulations.