Assessment of chemical fate in the environment using evaluative, regional and local-scale models: Illustrative application to chlorobenzene and linear alkylbenzene sulfonates

Abstract

Abstract Evaluation of chemical fate in the environment has been suggested to be best accomplished using a five-stage process in which a sequence of increasing site-specific multimedia mass balance models is applied. This approach is illustrated for chlorobenzene and linear alkylbenzene sulfonates (LAS). The first two stages involve classifying the chemical and quantifying the emissions into each environmental compartment. In the third stage, the characteristics of the chemical are determined using the evaluative equilibrium criterion model, which is capable of treating a variety of chemicals including those that are involatile and insoluble in water. This evaluation is conducted in three steps using levels I, II, and III versions of the model, which introduce increasing complexity and more realistic representations of the environment. In the fourth stage, ChemCAN, which is a level III model for specific regions of Canada, is used to predict the chemical's fate in southern Ontario. The final stage is to apply local environmental models to predict environmental exposure concentrations. For chlorobenzene, the local model was the SoilFug model, which predicts the fate of agro-chemicals, and for LAS the WW-TREAT, GRiDS, and ROUT models were used to predict the fate of LAS in a sewage treatment plant and in riverine receiving waters. It is concluded that this systematic approach provides a comprehensive assessment of chemical fate, revealing the broad characteristics of chemical behavior and quantifying the likely local and regional exposure levels.