Water at the Outlet of the St. Lawrence River Part I - Sampling and Major Cations

Abstract

Abstract The St. Lawrence River exports important loads of contaminants to the estuary, but good estimates of annual loadings are presently not available. During two years (1989–91), discrete and composite samples were taken on a daily basis at the water intake of the drinking water treatment plant of Lévis in front of Québec City. Our data indicate that discrete samples are representative of the bulk of the water and that magnesium or calcium measurements provide valuable information on the species transported to the estuary in the dissolved phase. Any decrease in magnesium concentrations at Lévis is the result of relative flow increases from the tributaries of the river. Using high flow episodes in tributaries and daily magnesium measurements at Lévis, the time of transport of the dissolved phase from many sources along the river has been evaluated. At high flow, the time of transport from the Carillon Dam (on the Ottawa River) to Lévis is 11 days, while it is 8 days from Beauharnois. With these data, a predictive model using magnesium (or calcium) as the chemical parameter characterizing the dissolved phase of the St. Lawrence River at the mouth of the estuary was developed. Loadings to the estuary of any dissolved contaminant can now be estimated by combining daily calculated flow values with daily measured water composition at Levis.