Railway transport of coal poses an environmental risk, because coal dust contains polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), mercury, and other trace metals. In the Pacific Northwest of the United States, proposed infrastructure projects could result in an increase in coal transport by train through the Columbia River corridor. Baseline information is needed on current distributions, levels, and spatial patterns of coal dust-derived contaminants in habitats and organisms adjacent to existing coal transport lines. To that end, we collected aquatic surface sediments, aquatic insects, and juvenile fish in 2014 and 2015 from Horsethief Lake State Park and Steigerwald National Wildlife Refuge, both located in Washington state close to the rail line and within the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. Two subsites in each area were selected: one close to the rail line and one far from the rail line. Detected PAH concentrations were relatively low compared with those measured at more urbanized areas. Some contaminants were measured at higher concentrations at the subsites close to the rail line, but it was not possible to link the contaminants to a definitive source. Trace metal concentrations were only slightly higher than background concentrations, but a few of the more sensitive benchmarks were exceeded, including those for arsenic, lead, and selenium in fish tissue and fluoranthene, cadmium, copper, manganese, nickel, zinc, iron, and arsenic in sediments. At Horsethief Lake, Chinook salmon and yellow perch showed lower total mercury body burdens than other species, but PAH body burdens did not differ significantly among species. Differences in the species caught among subsites and the low number of invertebrate samples rendered food web comparisons difficult, but these data show that the PAHs and trace metals, including mercury, are accumulating in these wetland sites and in some resident organisms.

中文翻译：

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沉积物，水生无脊椎动物和鱼类中污染物浓度接近西北太平洋（美国）煤炭运输所用的铁路轨道：基线评估。

煤的铁路运输构成环境风险，因为煤尘中含有多环芳烃（PAH），汞和其他微量金属。在美国西北太平洋地区，拟议中的基础设施项目可能导致通过哥伦比亚河走廊的火车煤炭运输量增加。需要关于与现有煤炭运输线相邻的生境和生物中煤尘衍生污染物的当前分布，水平和空间格局的基准信息。为此，我们分别于2014年和2015年从Horsethief湖州立公园和Steigerwald国家野生动物保护区收集了水面沉积物，水生昆虫和幼鱼，它们均位于华盛顿州靠近铁路线且位于哥伦比亚河峡谷国家风景区内。在每个区域中选择了两个子站点：一处靠近铁路线，一处远离铁路线。与城市化地区相比，检测到的PAH浓度相对较低。在靠近铁路线的子站点中，以较高的浓度测量了一些污染物，但是不可能将这些污染物与确定的污染源联系起来。痕量金属浓度仅略高于本底浓度，但超过了一些更敏感的基准，包括鱼组织中的砷，铅和硒以及荧蒽，镉，铜，锰，镍，锌，铁和沉积物中的砷。在Horsethief湖中，奇努克鲑鱼和黄鲈显示的总汞体负荷低于其他物种，但PAH体负荷在不同物种之间没有显着差异。