Influence of wastewater effluents on the bioaccumulation of volatile methylsiloxanes in the St. Lawrence River.

The bioaccumulation of cyclic volatile methylsiloxanes (D3 to D6) as well as linear siloxanes (L3 to L5) was studied in a food web in the St. Lawrence River downstream of the effluent of the municipal wastewater treatment plant in Montreal, Canada. For most species, differences in δN in fish and prey showed a clear separation of individual fish feeding in food webs influenced by the wastewater plume from those feeding outside the plume.