Mercury sources to Lake Ozette and Lake Dickey : highly contaminated remote coastal lakes, Washington State, USA

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2009. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Springer for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Water, Air, & Soil Pollution 208 (2009): 275-286, doi:10.1007/s11270-009-0165-y.Mercury concentrations in largemouth bass and mercury accumulation rates in age-dated sediment cores were examined at Lake Ozette and Lake Dickey in Washington State. Goals of the study were to compare concentrations in fish tissues at the two lakes with lakes in a larger statewide dataset and evaluate factors influencing lake loading at Ozette and Dickey, which may include: catchment disturbances, coastal mercury cycling, and the role of trans-Pacific Asian mercury. Mercury fish tissue concentrations at the lakes were among the highest recorded in Washington State. Wet deposition and historical atmospheric monitoring from the area show no indication of enhanced deposition from Asian sources or coastal atmospheric processes. Sediment core records from the lakes displayed rapidly increasing sedimentation rates coinciding with commercial logging. The unusually high mercury flux rates and mercury tissue concentrations recorded at Lake Ozette and Lake Dickey appear to be associated with logging within the catchments

A baseline assessment of local mercury deposition from coal-fired power plants in Central Texas.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 101-106).Coal-fired power plants represent the largest source of anthropogenic mercury in the world. The Central Texas region as represented by the Heart of Texas Council of Governments contains two coal-fired power plants located in Freestone and Limestone Counties. A third plant, Sandy Creek, is currently being proposed for McLennan County. The primary objective of the study is to estimate the amount of mercury being deposited via wet deposition in 2003 from two existing power plants in Central Texas, Big Brown and Limestone, and predict deposition from a proposed plant, Sandy Creek. The Industrial Source Code Short-Term model was used to estimate wet deposition, and empirical data was collected to determine the mercury levels in environs near the plants. According to the research and statistical analyses, the Central Texas power plants studied appear to be having no impact on the water quality of area surface waters.by Chad V. Furl.M.E.S