Background: As the longest river in Asia, the Yangtze River flows through the most industrialized cities in China and provides critical ecological services for agriculture, industry, and transportation. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have been banned for many years, but trace amounts of PCBs still exist as persistent organic pollutant in drinking water and are an ecotoxicological problem. In this work, we collected water, sediment, and suspended particulate matter (SPM) samples along the Yangtze River, to study the distribution and transport of PCBs for the risk assessment of the Yangtze River as a drinking water source. Results: The ΣPCBs concentrations in water, sediment, and SPM ranged in 0.04–11 ng/L, 0.33–69 ng/g, and 0.72–153 ng/L, respectively. The main pollutants were PCB17, 18, 28, 47, and 118 in the Yangtze River. The ff_SW value of PCB18 and PCB28 all exceeded 0.50, whereas the ff_SW value of PCB47 and PCB118 (except for PCB118 at Y-4) was less than 0.50. The toxic equivalent quantity (TEQ) range of PCBs in water and in sediment was ND–5.55 pg-TEQ/L and ND–2.51 pg-TEQ/g, respectively. Conclusions: In both water and sediment, lower chlorinated PCBs are dominant in the middle reaches and higher chlorinated PCBs are dominant at downstream. In contrast, SPM is dominated by tetra-CBs. The ff_SW values reveal a net redissolution of lower PCBs from sediments to water but a net sorption of higher PCBs from water to sediment. The PCBs in water and sediment at downstream pose potential ecological risk, but the drinking water does not have a non-carcinogenic risk for humans.

Metal pollution in drinking water source has been under scrutiny as it seriously affects human health. This work examined 12 dissolved metals in the surface and overlying water of the Xiangjiang River, an important drinking water source in southern China, and characterized their distribution, identified their possible sources, assessed their toxicity load, and determined their potential ecological and health risk. No significant difference was found in the metal concentration between surface and overlying water. The average metal concentration fell in the order of Mg > Mn > Ba > Fe > Zn > As > Sb > Ni > Cd > V > Cr > Co, and all was lower than the safety threshold in the drinking water guideline of China. Anthropogenic activities were found to be the main source of metals from correlation analysis, principal component analysis (PCA), and cluster analysis (CA). According to the total heavy metal toxicity load (HMTL), 98.20%, 71.54%, 68.88%, and 7.97% of As, Cd, Sb, and Mn should be removed from the surface water to ensure safety. Most water samples from the surveyed area were found to have high ecological risk as was measured by the ecological risk index (RI). Health risk assessment showed that children are more susceptible than adults to the non-carcinogenic risk of dissolved metals, and the potential carcinogenic risk (CR) of As and Cd should be addressed. The results provide guidance for controlling the metal pollution of the Xiangjiang River and improving its quality as a drinking water source.