Waste barrel contamination and macrobenthic communities in the San Pedro Basin DDT dumpsite.

Industrial waste barrels were discarded from 1947 to 1961 at a DDT dumpsite in the San Pedro Basin (SPB) in southern California, USA at ~890 m. The barrels were studied for effects on sediment concentrations of DDX, PCBs, PAHs and sediment properties, and on benthic macrofaunal assemblages, including metazoan meiofaunal taxa >0.3 mm.

Caffeine and agricultural pesticide concentrations in surface water and groundwater on the north shore of Kauai (Hawaii, USA).

Caffeine has been associated with wastewater pollution in temperate and subtropical locations, but environmental caffeine concentrations in tropical locations have not been reported. The objectives of this study were to measure caffeine and agricultural pesticide (carbaryl, metalaxyl, and metribuzin) concentrations in environmental waters on the tropical north shore of Kauai (Hawaii, USA) and assess whether patterns in caffeine concentration were consistent with a wastewater caffeine source. Groundwater, river, stream and coastal ocean samples were collected in August 2006 and February 2007.

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers in pinnipeds stranded along the southern California coast.

Little to no information exists for polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in marine mammals frequenting the highly urbanized southern California (USA) coast. Fourteen PBDE congeners were determined by GC-ECNI-MS in blubber of pinnipeds stranded locally between 1994 and 2006. Total PBDE concentrations (SigmaPBDE) in California sea lion (n = 63) ranged from 0.

Making performance-based chemistry work: how we created comparable data among laboratories as part of a Southern California marine regional assessment.

Quality assurance procedures to ensure consistency among chemistry laboratories typically involves the use of standard methods and state certification programs that require laboratories to demonstrate their ability to attain generic performance criteria. To assess whether these procedures are effective for ensuring comparability when processing local samples with potentially complex matrices, seven experienced, state-certified laboratories participated in an intercalibration exercise. Each laboratory was permitted to use their typical methodology for quantifying PAH, PCB and DDT on shared samples collected from Santa Monica Bay and the Palos Verdes Shelf, two sites with a complex mix of constituents.