"EXAMINATION OF WATER QUALITY IN THE ANACOSTIA WATERSHED: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF FLUORANTHENE, NAPHTHALENE, PYRENE, DECAMETHYLCYCLOPENTASILOXANE (D5), AND 2, 4, 6, 8-TETRAMETHYLCYCLOTETRASILOXANE (2468) IN URBAN AND SUBURBAN LOCATIONS"

The Anacostia River is a major waterway located in Washington, D.C. It is also one of the nation’s 10 most contaminated rivers, containing sewage, metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and has been cited by the EPA as a "major area of concern" for the Chesapeake region. The following research aimed to determine the concentrations of five contaminants – fluoranthene, naphthalene, pyrene, decamethylcyclopentasilolxane (D5) and 2,4,6,8-Tetramethylcyclotetrasiloxane (2468) – at five sites within the Anacostia watershed to determine whether there was a correlation between land use patterns and contaminant concentrations. There were no statistically significant differences in contaminant concentrations between urban and suburban sites except for D5, in which urban sites had higher concentrations. There was no statistically significant difference when comparing seasonality to fluoranthene concentrations. There was no predictive relationship at all between population density, precipitation, discharge rates and the concentrations observed. Although 2468 was not identified in any of the samples, these results provided concentrations for fluoranthene, naphthalene, pyrene, and D5 amongst the five chosen sample sites. The average sediment concentrations for fluoranthene (2.70 x 10^1 ± 2.18 x 10^1 µM/g), naphthalene (1.37 x 10^2 ± 1.58 x 10^-2 µM/g), and pyrene (2.01 x 10^2 ± 3.66 x 10^1 µM/g) have increased in comparison to studies published in the early 2000s.