Atmospheric Deposition Of Contaminants To The Great Lakes And Coastal Waters

Pollution threatens the Laurentian Great Lakes and is a serious problem. This book examines what is known about the major classes of persistent toxic organic pollutants. Agricultural runoff, urban waste, industrial discharge, landfill leachate, and atmospheric deposition, are all to blame. Contamination of the various ecosystems is reviewed, and what is known about the effects of this pollution. This volume provides an invaluable resource for those in environmental research, measurements, and decision making concerning the Great Lakes.

Exploratory applications of mass balance modeling of PCB's in Lake Ontario. It is widely accepted that environmental fate models, in the form of mass balances or budgets, can play a useful role in managing the issue of the presence of toxic organic chemicals in the Great Lakes. Under the aegis of the IJC, three independant modelling efforts were produced in order to determine if the models gave similar, useful and understandable results. These groups developed different models of the fate of the PCB's in the water column, sediment and biota of Lake Ontario and projected the response of the lake to specified changes in PCB loading. These reports, reproduced in extenso in this volume, were evaluated during a workshop held in 1987 by scientists who also addressed their application and management implications. The Task Force of the IJC presents its views, conclusions and recommendations.

"The Swedish National Environmental Protection Board and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe hosted a workshop in Stockholm (March 12-14, 1990) entitled "Long-Range Transport of Organic Pollutants". The particular purpose of this meeting was to (a) provide a forum for exchange of information on the topic among researchers and policy makers in Europe, and (b) acquaint Scandinavian and other European researchers with existing and potential activities concerning atmospheric transport and deposition of persistent toxic organics, especially the organochlorines. A number of North American investigators in the field were invited and their papers, including this one, will appear in a published proceedings of the workshop. This particular paper was intended to describe the development of the concern over atmospheric deposition in the Great Lakes and to describe the investigations in that area and what progress has been achieved to date. Here and in the workshop, the stress has been on the global nature of the transport and dispersal of the persistent organochlorine group of chemicals"--Executive summary.

This book reviews the globally important freshwater resource of the Great Lakes, which is currently threatened by contaminants that compromise water quality and impact its ecological and economic health. Divided into four parts, this volume covers historic, current and emerging sources of contamination from heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants to microplastics; and identifies their ecological impacts. Due to factors ranging from rapidly changing land use practices, climate change and our emerging understanding of their impact on biological, chemical and physical interactions, the effectiveness of management strategies has proven highly variable. Continued enhancements in the rate of lake recovery are required to sustain the health of the Great Lakes. Accordingly, the book also explores recent advances in contaminant detection, along with future steps forward in lake management approaches. Revealing our current knowledge gaps and providing a roadmap towards sustainable solutions, the book offers a valuable asset for scientists, managers and the public alike.