Historical pollution variability from abandoned mine sites, Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, New South Wales, Australia

Abstract

Core and surface sediments from the Tonalli River, a tributary of the artificial lake, Lake Burragorang, in the Blue Mountains National Park, New South Wales, Australia, were studied to evaluate the spatio-temporal distribution of pollutants from the Yerranderie silver-lead-zinc mine site, abandoned in the late 1920s. A sediment core was collected in the mouth of the Tonalli River, at its junction with Lake Burragorang, and surface sediment samples were collected in the Tonalli River and its tributaries. The concentrations of Pb, As, Zn, Cu, Cd, Hg and Ag in the sediments were determined by ICP-MS and ICP-AES techniques. Temporal variability of metal concentrations was established through 210 Pb dating of the core sediments and compared with published historical records, rainfall records and bushfire data. Metal concentrations in core sediments showed an overall increase around the year 1950 as well as increases coincident with heavy rainfall. Spatially, metal concentrations were up to 400 times the guideline limit around mine sites but decreased rapidly with distance downstream of the mines.

A diatom-based Holocene record of human impact from a coastal environment: Tuckean Swamp, eastern Australia

“…WA calibration was then used to estimate the diatom inferred pH Loss-on-ignition analysis (LOI) followed Bengtsson and Enell (1986). Sediments were pre weighed before combustion at 550ºC for 2 hours to provide a proxy for organic matter content of the sediment (Heiri et al 2001 (Harrison et al 2002). The CIC (constant initial concentration) and CRS (constant rate of supply) models yielded similar results, and sedimentation rates were calculated using the CIC method (Robbins and Edgington 1975).…”

Palaeoecology of the South Wellesley Archipelago. A history of human occupation and environmental change

“…The naturally occurring radioisotope 210 Pb dates the top 20cm of MARR02 and MARR04, following the methodology of Harrison et al (2003) and using alpha spectrometry at ANSTO. 210 Pb activity.…”

“…The age chronology for 210 Pb was determined by measuring radioisotopes (Po 210 and Ra 226 ) for the top 20cm of each core using alpha spectrometry following Harrison et al (2003). The sedimentation rate and age was calculated using both the constant rate of supply (CRS) (Appleby and Oldfield, 1978) and the constant initial concentration (CIC) models (see Appendix VI) (Goldberg et al, 1977;Robbins and Edgington, 1975).…”

A landscape-scale approach to examining the fate of atmospherically derived industrial metals in the surficial environment

“…Results and age model construction was previously discussed in Stromsoe (2013) and Marx et al, (2010 Pb calculated from the difference between supported and total 210 Pb activity (Harrison et al, 2003).…”