Freisetzung schwerflüchtiger chlorierter Kohlenwasserstoffe aus aquatischem Sediment durch Baumaßnahmen in Berlin

In 1996, in fish — especially eels — from the Berlin Teltowkanal (TK) in Rudow, above the former border between the east and west, suddenly appearing amounts of sDDT (ΣDDT, DDE, DDD as 2,4′ and 4,4′ isomers) were determined, demonstrating about 22 000 μg/kg FS or approximately 10fold of the amount measured in the previous year. It was the aim of the works to verify the suspected cause — deep dredging at the former border crossing (Wredebrücke, TK km 32,4) which was closed for all shipping up to 1990 — to pursue the hight of the sDDT loads during the following years and to find out the spatial dimensions of the new sDDT contaminations. The background of these incidents was the production of DDT preprarations in the former VEB Berlin-Chemie (BC), about 5 km upwards from the Wredebrücke until 1984, leading to serious loads in the water. Measured as the contents in indicator fishes, they decreased continuously from 1983, the beginning of the investigations, until 1995. The sampling was performed as electrical fishing by the Fischereiamt (FiA) at the Senat from Berlin, who also gave the order for the capillary gas-chromatographic determinations. The sDDT batch from 1995 decreased in the canal downwards from the Wredebrücke which could be seen at the sampling points Barnackufer, TK km 16.4, Griebnitzsee, TK km 30 and Kleiner Wannsee/Pohlesee, for instance, all waters influenced by the TK. The profiles of the constituents of sDDT in fish in the vicinity of BC was nearly equivalent to those in the production wastewaters. 2,4′-DDD was taken as an indicator substance. This compound could be found in fish until 1984 and appeared in Rudow and at the Barnackufer for the first time in 1995, thus indicating that 2,4′-DDD was released again at the dredging. The isomers of HCH, the main congeners of PCB and HCB, remained inconspicous as contaminants in fish of the TK. In 1998, the sDDT values in fish of the TK at Rudow clearly decreased; at the Barnackufer already by 1997. Similar phenomena were also observed in Berlin waters in the vicinity of other building sites. They are practical examples for the remobilisation of substances from aquatic sediments.