Publication Type:
Book ChapterSource:
Sudbury '99; mining and the environment II; Volume 2, Conference proceedings--Sudbury '99; L'exploitation miniere et l'environnement II; Volume 2, Compte rendu, Sudbury Environmental, Sudbury, ON, Canada, p.681-690 (1999)ISBN:
0-88667-047-0Keywords:
Canada, concentration, copper, discharge, eastern canada, effluents, geochemistry, lacustrine environment, lake sediments, metals, Mining, NICKEL, Ontario, pollutants, pollution, remediation, Risk assessment, sediments, sewage, smelting, solute transport, Sudbury District Ontario, technology, water management, water quality, water resourcesAbstract:
Work has begun on developing a remediation plan for a 339 hectare, nutrient-rich lake contaminated by Ni, Cu and P in Sudbury, Ontario. It has received run-off and discharge from a large mining and smelting complex as well as sewage effluent and urban runoff since the 1880's. Metal contamination extends 100 km downstream to the Great Lakes; internal P loading may influence algal blooms in nearby downstream lakes. Cores show an apparently annual pattern of sediment couplets and an increase in sedimentation rate of an order of magnitude over pre-settlement levels. About 120 cm of sediment in a 16 m deep basin records contamination peaking at 1.2% Ni and 0.8% Cu in the 1970's. Since then, treatment of mining and sewage effluent has improved sediment and lake water quality. Diagenesis has produced vivianite crystals and also overgrowths of chalcopyrite on airborne metallic smelter stack particles. Anoxia in the bottom water during summer and winter coincides with high P concentrations. Cu is adsorbed on settling particles in summer; dissolved Cu levels increase in the bottom water after oxygenation during the fall turnover. Long term trends show considerable lowering of Cu concentrations in the water leaving the lake.
Notes:
GeoRef, Copyright 2018, American Geological Institute.<br/>2000-043753<br/>Kelley Lake
