Alpine Lakes and Pollution

[Scott_J]

Yesterday I was climbing at a local area when I ran into a couple of National Park Service rangers that I know. We struck up a conversation about pesticides and salmon. That is when one of them told me of a study done in the North Cascades NP alpine lakes and the fish in said lakes. He said the fish in these lakes have as high levels of mercury as the fish in the local lakes near Seattle and Tacoma!

I find this rather alarming to say the least. I once looked upon these lakes as the last vestige of cleanliness and serenity.

So then I I did some "research" and ran into these aticles. click and read. Rather alarming!

 

http://water.usgs.gov/wid/FS_216-95/FS_216-95.html

 

http://www.ecy.wa.gov/biblio/0303012.html

 

http://wa.water.usgs.gov/reports/fs.102-97/

 

http://www.sciencenews.org/20030201/bob8.asp This last link has information on Hg and its ability to get into the environment.

Sisu, its what America needs

[Dru]

so can you tell the temp with a fish or not?

[catbirdseat]

Studies have shown that for the same species of fish taken from the same region, increasing the acidity of the water (decreasing pH) and/or the DOC content generally results in higher body burdens in fish. Many scientists currently think that higher acidity and DOC levels enhance the mobility of mercury in the environment, thus making it more likely to enter the food chain.

Acid deposition of nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides may exacerbate the situation. Western lakes aren't getting nearly the amount of acids as Eastern lakes, but they don't have much buffering capacity, either. One solution might be to dump limestone in the lakes to bring up the pH.

Best estimates to date suggest that human activities have about doubled or tripled the amount of mercury in the atmosphere, and the atmospheric burden is increasing by about 1.5 percent per year.

There may have always been elevated mercury levels in these lakes but it may be increasing due to human activity. Most of this is coming from the burning of coal of which Geo. W wants to burn more. Much of it comes from incineration at hospitals. This source will decrease as mercury thermometers have been phased out.