Evaluation of organic compound source and natural attenuation, Liepaja Latvia

Liepaja harbor is a former Soviet military site. Remediation of the harbor basin, including dredging of the sediments heavily contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons and heavy metals is necessary to convert the harbor for civilian use. Abandoned pollution sources on land still continue to leach contaminants into the harbor basin. Our long-term research objective therefore is to identify transport pathways into the harbor sediments and to assess the in-situ degradation of pollutants in the system. The Liepaja harbor is treated as a complex system, where processes in the water column interact with the sediments and the nepheloid sediment boundary layer. For this research PAHs are used as the…