ruled out by incorporating procedural blanks which showed no such 

 anomalous peak. Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry analysis of 

 the samples was then carried out using a Hewlett-Packard 5890 GC 

 and 5870 SMD system equipped with a 12 m cross linked methyl 

 silicone (0.33 1) fused silica capillary column. The total ion 

 concentration pattern showed a single peak with the retention 

 time of 25.92 minutes, which matches with the thirteenth peak of 

 Bis (2-ethyl hexyl) Phthalate (BEHP) standard (Fig. 9A, B) . The 

 confirmation of this trace organic compound is shown in the mass 

 spectrum (Fig. 9C, D) . Bis (2-ethyl hexyl) Phthalate is the most 

 common plasticizer in use by industry. According to Giam (1976) , 

 the national annual production of BEHP was 200 million kilograms 

 in the 1970 's or six times the amount of the known pollutants, 

 the PCBs. The solubility of BEHP in water is 0.04-0.40 ppm (Giam 

 et al. , 1984). Di-n butyl Phthalate (DNBP), a related Phthalate 

 ester which has a solubility of 10-13 ppm in water (Giam et al. , 

 1984) was found nearly 100% associated with particulates in 

 Thames River water samples according to Dr. A. Libbey, Associate 

 Professor of Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of 

 Connecticut. BEHP, which is much less soluble in water than 

 DNBP, is also expected to show a close affinity with particulates 

 in environmental samples. Possession of such a property could be 

 useful in serving as a particulate-borne or particulate- 

 transported pollutant tracer. 



Frequency of occurrences of BEHP in Mvtilus edulis 

 maintained in both eastern (ELIS) and western Long Island Sound 

 throughout the year is presented in Table 9. The highest 

 frequency at ELIS was during July, August and September, while at 

 WLIS it was during October, November and December (p < 0.05). 

 The reason for the discrepancy is not known and would have 

 required further studies outside the scope of this investigation. 



Mortalities . Prior to examining the prepared tissue 

 sections for evidence of histopathologic changes, an attempt was 

 made to obtain a first approximation of the possible adverse 

 effects on the mussels by analyzing the cumulative mortalities. 

 Figure 10 shows the differences in cumulative mortalities between 

 the populations at Rlr and in western Long Island Sound. The 

 populations differed in the times required to reach 50% 

 cumulative mortalities, i.e., 2, 2.5 and 3 months for the WLISc 

 and 500MW, WLISrN, and Rlr populations, respectively. The 

 maximum cumulative mortalities: 50% for Rlr and 70-90% for 

 WLISrN, WLISc and 500MW were attained in September, three months 

 after the deployment of mussels. WLISc population appears to be 

 the only exception, and shows a steady increase of the cumulative 

 mortalities from 65 to 90% during the period of January through 

 March when disposal of dredged materials was taking place at this 

 site. This observation suggests that the apparent disposal- 

 associated mortality is limited to the immediate environment of 

 the disposal site. The RXC contingency table of dead and live 

 mussels observed in the four populations throughout the year is 



8 



