Investigation of a new passive sampler for the detection of munitions compounds in marine and freshwater systems

Over the last century, unexploded ordnances have been disposed of in marine shelf systems because of a lack of cost‐effective alternatives. Underwater unexploded ordnances have the potential to leak 2,4,6‐trinitrotoluene (TNT) and 1,3,5‐trinitro‐1,3,5‐triazine (RDX), commonly used chemical munitions, and contaminate local waters, biota, and sediments. The rate at which this contamination occurs in the environment is relatively unknown, and the cost‐ and time‐prohibitive nature of sampling across sites makes mapping difficult. In the present study we assessed the efficacy of ethylene‐vinyl acetate (EVA) for sampling relatively soluble munitions compounds over a range of environmental conditions (i.e., changes in temperature and salinity) and optimized the composition of the passive sampling polymer. The EVA sampler was able to successfully detect ambient concentrations of lingering munitions compounds from field sites containing unexploded ordnances. The sampler affinity for the munitions in terms of an EVA–water partition coefficient was greater than the standard octanol water values for each target compound. Partitioning of compounds onto EVA over the natural ranges of salinity did not change significantly, although uptake varied consistently and predictably with temperature. Increasing the vinyl acetate to ethylene ratio of the polymer corresponded to an increase in uptake capacity, consistent with enhanced dipole–dipole interactions between the munitions and the polymer. This sampler provides a cost‐effective means to map and track leakage of unexploded ordnances both spatially and temporally. Environ Toxicol Chem 2018;37:1990–1997. © 2018 SETAC