EVALUATION AND APPLICATION OF A FUGACITY MODEL TO EXPLAIN THE PARTITIONING OF CONTAMINANTS IN THE ST. LAWRENCE RIVER VALLEY

A fugacity-based model to explain the partitioning of contaminants in the environment is evaluated. Using emission inventories, air and water concentrations predicted by the model for the southwestern Québec region generally agree with field data for phenanthrene,α-HCH, lindane, and DDT. For pyrene, air concentrations are in agreement but water concentrations were in error by a factor of nearly 20. There is also a possibility for using the model to predict emissions from known air and water concentrations. The model was run over 120 times each for phenanthrene, HCB, and lindane while randomly varying the input parameters each time. A Principal Components Analysis and a partial correlation analysis indicate that certain input parameters are more important for some compounds than for others and that log K _ow is the physical-chemical property of greatest importance.