Abstract
Road deicing salt use in the United States has increased
extensively over the last 60 years with urbanization and a need to
keep roads safe during winter months. This increase has caused an
overall increase in the base concentration of Cl- in streams near
roads that receive deicing salts. Many of these streams are in the
Northeast United States where extensive industrialization has led
to the pollution of soils, sediments, and surface waters by heavy
metals. This study addresses the effect that chloride
concentration has on fluvial transport and partitioning of heavy
metals between the dissolved and suspended phases in an urban
watershed. The study area consists of the Patroon Creek Watershed,
which drains an area of 37 km2 within the City of Albany, and Town
of Colonie, NY. Patroon Creek flows 11 km from the Albany Pine
Bush through progressively more urbanized areas into the Hudson
River. Over a period of one and a half years, monthly samples were
taken for both major ion and total heavy metal analysis, and an
autosampler at the USGS stream gage was used to sample storm
events. Chloride has been found to have no significant effect on
total heavy metal concentrations in the watershed; however total
heavy metal concentrations and suspended particulate matter shows
a strong positive correlation. Increasing chloride concentration
does show some effect on the partitioning of chloride
complex-forming heavy metals toward the dissolved phase. This
implies that heavy metals are flowing into the stream adsorbed to
suspended particulates. Once in the stream they react with
elevated levels of chloride causing them to be desorbed from
particulate surfaces into the dissolved phase where they form
chloride complexes and may become more bioavailable to aquatic
organisms.
Begeal, C.J., 2008. The Effect of Chloride Ion on Heavy Metal
Partitioning and Transport in an Urban Watershed: Patroon Creek,
Albany, NY.
Unpublished MSc. thesis, State University of New York at
Albany. 86 pp., +xi
University at Albany Science Library call number: SCIENCE
Oversize (*) QC 869 Z899 2008 B44
MS thesis text pdf 3.3MB
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