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  • Remotely Sensing Pollution: Detection and Monitoring of PCBs in The San Francisco Bay

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    Annette Hilton, College of Wooster - Abstract: While the EPA banned polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in 1977, they continue to persist in San Francisco Bay (SF Bay), often at dangerously high concentrations due to their long half-life. However, in spite of their associated health and environmental risks, PCB monitoring within SF Bay is extremely limited, due in large part to the high costs, both in terms of labor and capital that are associated with it. In this study, a cost effective alternative to in-situ PCB sampling is presented by demonstrating the feasibility of PCB detection via remote sensing. This was done by first establishing relationships between in-situ measurements of sum of 40 PCB concentrations and total suspended sediment concentration (SSC) collected from 1998-2006 at 37 stations distributed throughout SF Bay. A correlation was discovered for all stations at (R2=0.32), which improved markedly upon partitioning stations into north bay, (R2=0.64), central bay (R2=0.80) and south bay (R2=0.52) regions. SSC was then compared from three USGS monitoring stations with temporally consistent Landsat 8 imagery. The resulting correlation between Landsat 8 (Rrs 654) and SSC measured at USGS stations (R2=0.50) was validated using an Airborne Visible/ Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) image. The end product is a two-step empirical algorithm that can derive PCB from Landsat 8 imagery within SF Bay. This algorithm can generate spatial PCB concentration maps for SF Bay, which can in turn be utilized to increase ability to forecast PCB concentration. The observation that correlation between AVIRIS (Rrs 657) and SSC was stronger than that of Landsat 8 suggests that the accuracy of this algorithm could be enhanced with improved atmospheric correction.

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    Remotely sensing pollution: detection and monitoring of PCBs in the San Francisco Bay

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    Annette Hilton, College of Wooster - Abstract: While the EPA banned polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in 1977, they continue to persist in San Francisco Bay (SF Bay), often at dangerously high concentrations due to their long half-life. However, in spite of their associated health and environmental risks, PCB monitoring within SF Bay is extremely limited, due in large part to the high costs, both in terms of labor and capital that are associated with it. In this study, a cost effective alternative to in-situ PCB sampling is presented by demonstrating the feasibility of PCB detection via remote sensing. This was done by first establishing relationships between in-situ measurements of sum of 40 PCB concentrations and total suspended sediment concentration (SSC) collected from 1998-2006 at 37 stations distributed throughout SF Bay. A correlation was discovered for all stations at (R2=0.32), which improved markedly upon partitioning stations into north bay, (R2=0.64), central bay (R2=0.80) and south bay (R2=0.52) regions. SSC was then compared from three USGS monitoring stations with temporally consistent Landsat 8 imagery. The resulting correlation between Landsat 8 (Rrs 654) and SSC measured at USGS stations (R2=0.50) was validated using an Airborne Visible/ Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) image. The end product is a two-step empirical algorithm that can derive PCB from Landsat 8 imagery within SF Bay. This algorithm can generate spatial PCB concentration maps for SF Bay, which can in turn be utilized to increase ability to forecast PCB concentration. The observation that correlation between AVIRIS (Rrs 657) and SSC was stronger than that of Landsat 8 suggests that the accuracy of this algorithm could be enhanced with improved atmospheric correction.

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    Remotely Sensing Pollution: Detection and Monitoring of PCBs in The San Francisco Bay

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    jpeterson1
    Annette Hilton, College of Wooster - Abstract: While the EPA banned polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in 1977, they continue to persist in San Francisco Bay (SF Bay), often at dangerously high concentrations due to their long half-life. However, in spite of their associated health and environmental risks, PCB monitoring within SF Bay is extremely limited, due in large part to the high costs, both in terms of labor and capital that are associated with it. In this study, a cost effective alternative to in-situ PCB sampling is presented by demonstrating the feasibility of PCB detection via remote sensing. This was done by first establishing relationships between in-situ measurements of sum of 40 PCB concentrations and total suspended sediment concentration (SSC) collected from 1998-2006 at 37 stations distributed throughout SF Bay. A correlation was discovered for all stations at (R2=0.32), which improved markedly upon partitioning stations into north bay, (R2=0.64), central bay (R2=0.80) and south bay (R2=0.52) regions. SSC was then compared from three USGS monitoring stations with temporally consistent Landsat 8 imagery. The resulting correlation between Landsat 8 (Rrs 654) and SSC measured at USGS stations (R2=0.50) was validated using an Airborne Visible/ Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) image. The end product is a two-step empirical algorithm that can derive PCB from Landsat 8 imagery within SF Bay. This algorithm can generate spatial PCB concentration maps for SF Bay, which can in turn be utilized to increase ability to forecast PCB concentration. The observation that correlation between AVIRIS (Rrs 657) and SSC was stronger than that of Landsat 8 suggests that the accuracy of this algorithm could be enhanced with improved atmospheric correction.

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    How to Remotely Sense Pollution:

    Detection and monitoring of PCBs


    in the San Francisco Bay
    1

    Annette Hilton2
    Jesse Bausell 2
    Raphael Kudela

    What are PCBs?


    Polychlorinated Biphenyls
    Used industrially,
    domestically in electrical
    equipment
    Commercially manufactured
    1929-1977, banned in USA
    Persistent in the
    environment, long shelf life
    Still released via improper
    disposal (landfills, industry)
    Probable human carcinogen
    (EPA)
    Half life in humans estimated
    2 years-several decades
    (Hopf et al. 2013)

    (US EPA)

    Area of Study
    PCBs problem in SF bay
    Public health concern, fish at
    unsafe levels
    Drinking water levels: 0.0005
    mg/L (500,000 pg/L)
    Fish: 10 ppb

    Monitoring irregular, costly, at


    specific sites
    PCB lab out of commission
    Spatial and temporal
    monitoring for entire bay

    Goals
    Remotely detect PCBs in the SF bay
    Correlate PCBs with detectable optical property
    ! Correlate PCBs with sediment in the SF bay

    (Google Earth)

    Methods
    PCBSediment

    algorithm

    SedimentReflectance (Image)

    algorithm
    PCBSediment

    PCBReflectance (Image)
    and

    Detect Pollution!

    Does the relationship change


    over time?

    Landsat 8
    9 images from
    2015
    SedimentReflectance (Image)

    Landsat 8

    Satellite instrument
    30 m resolution
    High temporal
    resolution, images 16
    days

    AVIRIS

    Airborne instrument
    16 m resolution
    Low temporal resolution,
    images 4-5 times/year

    Methods
    SedimentReflectance (Image)
    algorithm
    10^(0.001*Rrs657 + 1.277)
    PCBSediment
    Sediment Map
    algorithm
    7.320*Rrs654 + 434.1

    PCBReflectance (Image)
    and

    Detect Pollution!

    Landsat 8 2015

    units: pg/L

    units: pg/L

    units: pg/L

    Conclusions and Future Work


    Strong relationship between PCBs and sediment in SF
    bay, improves regionally
    Landsat 8 and AVIRIS successfully detect sediment in SF
    bay
    AVIRIS better regionally
    Landsat 8 better for whole bay
    Atmospheric correction meant for land not water

    PCBs can be detected remotely in the SF bay

    Where concentrations are highest, seasonal trends

    Relationship previously unstudied, valuable for bay


    Future work:
    Test algorithms regionally
    Test other satellite instruments, atmospheric correction
    PCBsediment relationship exist elsewhere?

    Acknowledgements
    Emily Schaller
    Jesse Bausell
    Raphael Kudela
    Oceans 11
    All of SARP 2016
    NASA & NSERC
    Thank you for making this
    research possible!

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