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AN UPDATE ON MERCURY LOADINGS, TRANSPORT, AND FATE IN LAKE MICHIGAN
Citation:
Rygwelski, K R. AND X. Zhang. AN UPDATE ON MERCURY LOADINGS, TRANSPORT, AND FATE IN LAKE MICHIGAN. Presented at International Commission Air Quality Advisory Board, Las Vegas, NV, January 27, 2004.
Description:
Mr. Rygwelski will present the results of a screening model to address the sources, transport, and fate of mercury from the Lake Michigan Mass Balance Study. The Lake Michigan Mass Balance Study is being spearheaded by the USEPA Great Lakes National Program Office, Region V, and the Office of Research and Development in cooperation with other EP offices, other federal agencies, the Lake Michigan states, tribes, and the private and public sectors. The project was designed to provide comprehensive lakewide and local perspectives of the sources, sinks, movement, and effects of contaminants in the system to assist managers in remedial and regulatory decision-making for the Lake Michigan Basin. The project focused on nutrients, atrazine, PCBs, trans-nonachlor, and mercury. The effort was supported by intensive sampling of the atmosphere, major tributaries, sediments, water column, and biota during the 1994/1995 field balance modeing gramework was applied to examine primary source and loss categories. --- Of the major tributaries, the Fox River exhibited the largest mercury load to Lake Michigan at approximately 100 kg/yr, with the St. Joseph, Kalamazoo, and Grand Rivers, each discharging approximately an order of magnitude less.