Götz Rainer, Bergemann Michael, Stachel Burkhard, Umlauf Gunther
Nettelhof 6, D-22609 Hamburg, Germany.
State Ministry for the Environment and Energy of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Department for Environmental Protection - Water Management, Neuenfelder Straße 19, D-21109 Hamburg, Germany.
Chemosphere. 2017 Sep;183:229-241. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2017.05.090. Epub 2017 May 17.
This paper provides a macro-analysis of the dioxin contamination in the river Elbe from the 1940s to the present. Based on different data sets, the historic dioxin concentration in the Elbe has been reconstructed. For the section between the tributary Mulde and Hamburg, during the 1940s, we find a concentration of about 1500 pg WHO-TEQ g. We argue that this dioxin contamination was caused mainly by emissions from a magnesium plant in Bitterfeld-Wolfen, whose effluents were discharged into a tributary of the river Mulde which flows into the Elbe. Dioxin pattern recognition with neural networks (Kohonen) confirms this. A model simulation shows that a hypothetical dioxin concentration of 10,000 pg WHO-TEQ g in the tributary Mulde could have caused the reconstructed dioxin concentration of 1500 pg WHO-TEQ g in the Elbe. The recent dioxin concentration (about 25-100 pg WHO-TEQ g) in the river Elbe, downstream the tributary Mulde, originates, according to our hypothesis, from emissions of the banks and the highly contaminated flood plains (transport of the particle bound dioxin). As other possible dioxin sources, the following could be excluded: the dioxin concentration in the Mulde, groynes, small ports, sport boat harbours, and extreme floods. Our hypothesis is supported by the results of pattern recognition techniques and a model simulation. According to these findings, we argue that remediation efforts to reduce the dioxin concentration in the river Elbe are unlikely to be successful.
本文对易北河从20世纪40年代至今的二噁英污染进行了宏观分析。基于不同的数据集，重建了易北河历史上的二噁英浓度。对于支流穆尔德河与汉堡之间的河段，在20世纪40年代，我们发现浓度约为1500皮克世卫组织毒性当量/克。我们认为，这种二噁英污染主要是由比特费尔德-沃尔芬的一家镁厂排放所致，该厂废水排入穆尔德河的一条支流，而穆尔德河流入易北河。利用神经网络（科霍宁）进行的二噁英模式识别证实了这一点。模型模拟表明，假设穆尔德河支流中二噁英浓度为10000皮克世卫组织毒性当量/克，可能导致易北河重建的二噁英浓度为1500皮克世卫组织毒性当量/克。根据我们的假设，穆尔德河支流下游的易北河近期二噁英浓度（约25 - 100皮克世卫组织毒性当量/克）源于河岸和高度污染的洪泛平原的排放（颗粒结合态二噁英的迁移）。作为其他可能的二噁英来源，以下因素可以排除：穆尔德河中的二噁英浓度、丁坝、小型港口、运动船港口和特大洪水。模式识别技术和模型模拟的结果支持了我们的假设。根据这些发现，我们认为降低易北河二噁英浓度的修复措施不太可能成功。
