Pb isotopic investigation of aircraft-sampled emissions from the Horne smelter (Rouyn, Québec): Implications for atmospheric pollution in northeastern North America

Abstract

This study reports metal abundances and Pb isotope ratios of emissions from the Horne copper smelter, and ambient (ground level) atmosphere at Rouyn, Québec retrieved during 2-week field studies in the winter and summer seasons of 2000. Plume aerosols were sampled during horizontal and vertical passes using a DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft, which typically tracked the plume up to 30 km from the stack. Samples of the ‘background’ atmospheric conditions were taken simultaneously from a ground site meteorological station located 2.5 km in the predominant upwind direction from the stack. Overall, metal concentrations (ng/m 3 of As, Cd, Cu, Pb, Se, Zn) for the in-plume samples are elevated by one or more orders of magnitude over those measured in the ground site samples. The Pb isotope compositions for the in-plume samples are extremely variable ( 206Pb/ 207Pb range from ∼1.120 to ∼1.170) but define well-constrained linear arrays in conventional Pb-Pb isotope plots. Correlations between metal concentrations (e.g. As/Pb, Cu/Pb, Zn/Pb) and the Pb isotope data are indicative of binary mixing between two anthropogenic end members; most probably imported industrial Pb found in recycled materials, and nonradiogenic Pb derived from Archean sulfide ore deposits. Pb isotope data from the winter ground site (‘background’) samples indicate that the ground level atmosphere at Rouyn contains a mixture of Pb emitted from the Horne smelter and long-range anthropogenic Pb transported from Eurasian pollution sources. Compared to the Pb isotope composition of epiphytic lichens, snowpack, and precipitations collected in 1990 to 1999 from adjacent geographic regions, the Pb isotope results obtained here suggest that aerosols emitted from the Horne smelter are dispersed into northeastern North America. However, future studies dealing with point source apportionment for this region of the globe will be rendered difficult due to the processing at the Horne smelter of recycled material containing industrial Pb from various sources.