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Great Lakes Air Deposition Program Sponsored Projects
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Project Title: Source Apportionment of PBTs and Speciated PM Affecting the Great
Lakes through Atmospheric Deposition
Synopsis: The Great Lakes are subjected to a multitude of PBTs and other pollutants.
Atmospheric deposition is a significant contributor to PBT levels in the Great
Lakes and is influenced by a complex mixture of source types and source locations
that change over time. For example, source types may include point sources, entire
urban areas, and volatilization from the lakes themselves, among other categories.
Source locations can range from local emissions to long-range transport. Changes
over time may result from changes in industrial and agricultural processes. Therefore,
policies to protect and restore the Great Lakes basin ecosystem are critically
dependent upon identifying and quantifying the variety of sources contributing
to Great Lakes atmospheric deposition. This project is attempting to answer such
questions about the sources affecting the health of the Great Lakes through a
variety of robust statistical analyses of previously collected atmospheric contaminant
monitoring data.
Chemicals Studied: This project is examining a large number of the contaminants
monitored by the Integrated Atmospheric Deposition Network, including Great
Lakes contaminants of concern such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), Polycyclic
Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) and chlorinated pesticides.
Geographic Areas: The study is examining source contributions at the IADN
monitoring sites at Sleeping Bear Dunes, Michigan; Sturgeon Point, New York;
and Eagle Harbor, Michigan. These monitors are located on the shores of lakes
Michigan, Erie and Superior, respectively.
Project Duration: Analysis of monitoring data is taking place between summer
of 2004 and summer of 2005. Final results and reports will be available by
fall of 2005.
Methods Used: Monitoring data from the IADN station will be analyzed in conjunction
with additional with data from the Speciated Trends Network (STN) and Interagency
Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments program monitors located near the
IADN sites. A series of statistical analyses will be performed identify likely
sources contributing to the detected contaminant concentrations and their relative
contributions to the total deposition to each of the lakes studies. First,
source apportionment analyses of atmospheric deposition to the Great Lakes
for multiple PBTs and species of PM will be conducted. Then, characterization
of sources through temporal and meteorological assessments and other statistical
and data analysis activities will be carried out. Using back trajectory analysis
and other supporting activities, source regions will be identified. Based on
the source apportionment and characterization studies, apportionment of loadings
estimates to the Great Lakes by individual sources and source regions will
be estimated.
Potential Results and Implications: The expected outcome from the study is
an assessment of the relative contributions of individual source types and
regions to the deposition of persistent toxics to several of the Great Lakes.
This information will have important implications for the ability for local,
regional or national environmental management or regulatory actions to further
decrease the amounts of these substances entering the lakes from the atmosphere.
The study will examine only a portion of the monitoring data available from
various networks around the region. If successful, the methods applied in this
project could potentially be applied to numerous other chemicals and locations.
Project Contact:
Stephanie Buehler, Ph.D.
Battelle
505 King Avenue
Columbus, OH 43201-2693
Email: buehlers@battelle.org
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