Evaluating sedimentary PAH bioavailability based on equilibrium partitioning and passive sampling at the Dover Gas Light Superfund Site (Dover, Delaware, USA).

From 1859 to 1948, the Dover Gas Light plant produced combustible gas for industrial, commercial, and residential applications using pine resin, coking coal, oil, and wood, and finally, a coal-gas process. Waste coal tar was discharged into the St. Jones River in Dover, Delaware (USA), via a ditch and culvert and, following plant closure in the 1940s, through groundwater flow from structures buried on the site.