Endicott Douglas, Silva-Wilkinson Robin, McCauley Dennis, Armstrong Brandon
Great Lakes Environmental Center (GLEC), Traverse City, MI, United States.
Water Resources Division, Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE), Lansing, MI, United States.
Integr Environ Assess Manag. 2025 Jul 1;21(4):810-822. doi: 10.1093/inteam/vjaf010.
Kent Lake is an impoundment of the Huron River in southeast lower Michigan. Fish collected from Kent Lake in 2017 had high concentrations of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) in fillets, which resulted in a fish consumption advisory from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. In June 2018, a major source of PFOS was identified as the City of Wixom's wastewater treatment plant, which discharges treated effluent to Norton Creek and the Huron River five miles upstream of Kent Lake. An industrial facility, which has been in operation since approximately 2000, was found to be the source of high levels of PFOS to Wixom's sanitary sewer. A granular activated carbon system was installed at the facility, resulting in substantial reductions in PFOS concentrations in surface water and fish from Kent Lake. However, the PFOS decline in fish tissue reached a plateau at a level exceeding the "Do Not Eat" advisory threshold. This case study sought to explore the supposition that sediment is acting as an ongoing source of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to the Kent Lake food web. We sampled PFAS in biota, sediment, and water from Kent Lake and a nearby reference lake in 2021. Biota (benthos, forage fish, and predator fish) were collected from both lakes and analyzed as whole-body composites for PFAS analytes. The results, including the patterns of PFAS contamination between the water, sediment, and biota samples as well as partition coefficients and bioaccumulation factors, are consistent with PFAS in sediment acting as an ongoing source of contamination to the biota in Kent Lake. This study's results for PFOS (the predominant PFAS in Kent Lake sediment and biota) and 6:2 fluorotelomer sulfonic acid (6:2 FTS) provide additional lines of evidence that sediment acts as a source of PFAS to the aquatic food web.
肯特湖是密歇根州下半岛东南部休伦河上的一个蓄水池。2017年从肯特湖采集的鱼类鱼片全氟辛烷磺酸（PFOS）浓度很高，这导致密歇根州卫生与公众服务部发布了鱼类消费建议。2018年6月，全氟辛烷磺酸的一个主要来源被确定为威克瑟姆市的污水处理厂，该厂将处理后的废水排放到诺顿溪以及肯特湖上游五英里处的休伦河。一家自2000年左右开始运营的工业设施被发现是威克瑟姆市下水道中高浓度全氟辛烷磺酸的来源。该设施安装了颗粒活性炭系统，使得肯特湖地表水和鱼类中的全氟辛烷磺酸浓度大幅降低。然而，鱼类组织中全氟辛烷磺酸的下降在超过“请勿食用”建议阈值的水平上达到了平稳状态。本案例研究旨在探讨沉积物是否持续作为全氟和多氟烷基物质（PFAS）进入肯特湖食物网的来源这一假设。我们在2021年对肯特湖及其附近一个参考湖的生物群、沉积物和水中的全氟和多氟烷基物质进行了采样。从两个湖中采集了生物群（底栖生物、饵料鱼和捕食性鱼类），并作为全身混合物分析其中的全氟和多氟烷基物质分析物。这些结果，包括水、沉积物和生物群样本之间的全氟和多氟烷基物质污染模式以及分配系数和生物累积因子，都与沉积物中的全氟和多氟烷基物质作为肯特湖生物群持续污染来源的情况一致。本研究关于全氟辛烷磺酸（肯特湖沉积物和生物群中主要的全氟和多氟烷基物质）和6:2氟调聚物磺酸（6:2 FTS）的结果提供了更多证据，证明沉积物是全氟和多氟烷基物质进入水生食物网的一个来源。
