Differentiating Sources of Contaminants in Two Lakes in Northern Ontario

The intern will measure the concentrations of organic contaminants (PAHs) and inorganic contaminants (metals) in cores from two lakes in Northern Ontario. One lake has an adjacent industrial site while the second lake represents a control site with no associated industry. Comparison between the lakes will determine whether contaminants previously measured were associated with the industry or are a result of non-point source atmospheric deposition in the region. This project will apply high resolution sampling over discrete depth intervals in order to differentiate between long range atmospheric and local point source deposition. Such high resolution sampling is not currently available from commercially available analytical approaches. This project will directly address the source of contaminants to this site and thereby benefit ENVIRON Canada Inc., an environmental and health sciences consultancy. Further, this new methodology will be applicable to constrain the sources of contaminants in similar environments and therefore to more effective investigation and remediation of environmental contaminants by the industrial partner at other sites.

Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Greg Slater

Student:

Andrew Benson

Partner:

ENVIRON (EC) Canada Inc.

Discipline:

Geography / Geology / Earth science

Sector:

Environmental industry

University:

McMaster University