Publication Summary

As part of the effort to track the success of chemical action plans, analyses of lead and PAHs will be added to the organic trends monitoring program. This addendum summarizes the addition of PAHs and lead to the Organic Trends QA Project Plan.

In 2007, the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) initiated a trend monitoring component for selected organic chemicals in major rivers and lakes as part of the Washington State Toxics Monitoring Program (WSTMP). This component focused on organic compounds that Ecology has identified as persistent, bioaccumulative, toxic chemicals (PBTs). The Ecology target PBT list is included in Appendix A.

The initial compounds of interest in the Trend Monitoring Component for Organic PBTs in the WSTMP Quality Assurance Project Plan (Organic Trends QA Project Plan) included chlorinated pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), with the intention of adding other PBTs over the next few years (Johnson, 2007).

Ecology and the State Department of Health (DOH) are developing chemical action plans to address specific PBTs. The objective of the chemical action plans is to reduce and phase-out PBT uses, releases, and exposures to humans and the environment in Washington (Gallagher, 2007). Chemical action plans for mercury (Peele, 2003) and PBDEs (Geller, 2006) have been completed. As a result, trend monitoring of these chemicals has been initiated as part of the WSTMP (Seiders, 2006; Coots, 2006; Johnson and Seiders, 2005; Johnson, 2007a).

Chemical action plans for lead and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are scheduled to be published in 2008 and 2009, respectively (Gallagher, 2007). As part of the effort to track the success of these chemical action plans, analyses of lead and PAHs will be added to the organic trends monitoring program. This addendum summarizes the addition of PAHs and lead to the Organic Trends QA Project Plan.

Link to EIM data for User Study ID SPMDTR08