Sandimirov S. Screening studies of POP levels in bottom sediments from selected lakes in the Paz watercourse / In State of the environment in the Norwegian, Finnish and Russian border area. The Finnish Environment. Finland, Jyvaskyla: Kopijyva Oy. 2007, №6.

Screening studies of PO P levels in bottom sediments from selected lakes in the P az watercourse 1 Introduction Discharges from smelting industry o f copper-nickel ore at Kola Peninsula have significant pollution effects on the environment in the border areas between Russia, Finland and Norway. Investigations carried out in the early 1990s revealed numerous acidified and heavy metal polluted lakes in the border areas (Traaen et al., 1991; 1992; Moiseenko et a l ., 1994; Dauvalter and Rognerud, 2001). Water quality monitoring carried out in eastern Finnmark, Norway has shown that the heavy metal concentrations in the lakes have remained high through the 1990s (SFT, 2001). However, smelting processes are the potential source o f many different contaminants, including persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Traditionally, management of aquatic resources in freshwater ecosystems have primary focused on water quality and less on sediment quality. Sediments represent essential elements of freshwater ecosystems and available information on sediment quality conditions indicates that sediments throughout the border area are contaminated by a wide range of toxic and bioaccumulative substances, including metals, PAHs, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), organochlorine pesticides and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and furans (PCDDs and PCDFs) (Dauvalter and Rognerud, 2001; Skotvold and Savinov, 2003). Contaminated sediments represent an important environmental concern for several reasons. First, contaminated sediments have been demonstrated to be toxic to sediment-dwelling organisms and fish. As such, exposure to contaminated sediments can result in increased mortality, reduced growth, or impaired reproduction in benthic invertebrates and fish. Additionally, certain sediment-associated contaminants (termed bioaccumulative substances) are taken up by benthic organisms and transferred further up the food chain. Many POPs are characterized by lower water solubility and high lipid solubility, leading to their bioaccumulation in the food chain. Contaminated sediments can also compromise human health due to direct exposure or through the consumption of contaminated fish and shellfish. 2 Aim of the study The aim of this study was to analyse freshwater sediments from lakes in the border area of Russia and Norway for persistent environmental contaminants and trace elements. Also some lakes from non industrialized areas in Norway and Finland were included in the study. These data, along with results o f benthic and ichthyologic studies, carried out in the same areas forms the basic for an evaluation o f the current environmental status in the region. 3 Quality Assurance Project Plan The project also suppose to: 1) In addition to assessing environmental status in the border area, the project was to serve an educational purpose. One aim was to instruct and train personnel in sediment sampling for analyses of POPs. The training program included the following aspects: • Quality assurance objectives and methods for assessing precision, accuracy, completeness, representativness, and comparability of the data generated; Rapport APN- 514.3665.01 5