Petroleum hydrocarbons in water from a Brazilian tropical estuary facing industrial and port development

A fast paced industrial and port development has occurred at Suape Estuary, Northeast Brazil, but no information about hydrocarbon concentrations in water is available to this area. Considering that, the contamination level of Suape was determined by UV-Fluorescence in terms of dissolved and/or dispersed petroleum hydrocarbons (DDPHs), during wet and dry seasons. DDPHs ranged between 0.05 and 4.59 μg L−1 Carmópolis oil equivalents and 0.01–1.39 μg L−1 chrysene equivalents, indicating DDPHs close to a baseline contamination level. Some relatively high concentrations (>1 μg L−1) were probably associated with shipyard operations (hull paintings and ship docking), pollutants remobilization by dredging operations, occasional industrial discharges and oil derivatives released by vessels. DDPHs concentrations were lower in the wet season suggesting that the increased dilution rates caused by rainfall dominated upon the wet deposition of atmospheric combustion-derived PAHs process. Results in this study may be used as baseline to further studies in this area.