Abstract
Levels of total mercury and total zinc in the sediments of Seneca Lake, New York, and of its principal tributary and outflow, show a pattern of industrial and municipal pollution in a predominantly rural environment. An interpolation technique based on the relationship of heavy metal concentration to overlying water depth is used to estimate the total mercury content of the upper 2 cm of Seneca Lake sediments, and the increment of mercury above an assumed unperturbed distribution. An approximate mass balance suggests that defunct industry and a 200 megawatt coal-burning power plant represent comparable pollution sources, and that most of the emitted mercury leaves the watershed in aqueous solution or as vapor. The distribution of zinc parallels that of mercury, with a relatively constant Zn/Hg ratio in the lake sediments.
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