Make sure that you recycle mercury-containing products and bulk mercury; households can contact the local household hazardous waste collection program. A few products require mercury to function, such as fluorescent and high-intensity-discharge lighting. These lights are still good choices environmentally and economically because they are highly energy efficient, which means they require less power generated by coal-burning power plants that release large amounts of mercury into the atmosphere.
By using and then recycling these items properly, we can minimize overall releases of mercury to the environment from human activities. Efforts by manufacturers of mercury-containing products, government programs, and solid waste management facilities have significantly reduced mercury entering the environment from products that contain it.
Minnesota state statutes about mercury, updated through the legislative session; no mercury-related legislation has been enacted since the Legislature. The laws include guidance about proper disposal and efforts to reduce mercury contamination in Minnesota.
Minnesota Waste Management Act: Mercury laws as amended through the legislative session last update October In , in partnership with Minnesota Waste Wise and vehicle manufacturers, the MPCA helped establish, promote, and evaluate a two-year program to collect and recycle vehicle mercury switches in Minnesota. The program targeted salvage yards, scrap processors, vehicle crushers, and related businesses. The Minnesota Mercury Recovery program built on nearly a decade of education and outreach to salvage yards through the MPCA, trade associations, and steel end markets.
Progress report. International Cooperation. Contact Us. Mercury Emissions: The Global Context. Mercury emissions know no national or continental boundaries. Mercury emitted into the air can travel thousands of miles in the atmosphere before it is eventually deposited back to the earth in rainfall or in dry gaseous form. Exposure to mercury threatens our health, with many often irreversible toxic effects.
Developing fetuses and young children are most at risk. Skip to main content. Search Search. Water Science School. Mercury Contamination of Aquatic Environments. Mercury and the Aquatic Environment. Get WQ data. Water Quality Information by Topic Learn more. Below are publications associated with aquatic mercury. Year Published: Mercury in the nation's streams - Levels, trends, and implications Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that accumulates in fish to levels of concern for human health and the health of fish-eating wildlife.
Wentz, Dennis A. View Citation. Filter Total Items: 0. Below are map products associated with aquatic mercury. Filter Total Items: 1. Year Select Year Apply Filter. Human-related sources primarily include coal combustion, waste incineration, industrial uses, and mining. During the last years, human activities have more than doubled natural amounts of mercury in the atmosphere. In matural waters, inorganic mercury is generally not a health concern.
The real issue is methylmercury, an organic form that is highly toxic to the nervous system. Methylmercury is produced from inorganic mercury by methylation, a microbial process that is controlled by certain bacteria and enhanced by chemical and environmental variables, such as the presence of organic matter and the absence of oxygen.
More than 95 percent of all mercury in fish is methylmercury, and this form of mercury biomagnifies to high concentrations at the top of food chains. Use the links below to access web pages describing additional USGS research on mercury and associated topics. Metals, metalloids, and radionuclides all are trace elements that occur naturally in the Earth's crust. In small quantities many trace elements are essential for health in all living organisms, but some trace elements can be toxic or cause cancer, and some can bioaccumulate.
The USGS investigates where and how trace elements make their way into our Nation's surface water and groundwater. Sediment cores let us look back in time at the contaminant history of a watershed. Learn about what lake and reservoir sediment cores tell us about trends in metals, organochlorine pesticides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and other sediment-related contaminants.
Stream, river, and lake bed sediment are reservoirs for many contaminants. Learn about techniques used to study sediment-associated contaminants and their importance to aquatic biota.
Who lives in your stream? Rivers and streams, even small ones, are teeming with a vast number of species, including fish, aquatic invertebrates, and algae. Stream ecology is the study of those aquatic species, the way they interrelate, and their interactions with all aspects of these flowing water systems.
Mercury contamination is a serious issue that impacts both ecosystem and human health on a global scale. In its organic methylmercury form, mercury is highly bioaccumulative and is among the most toxic compounds commonly found in the environment.
Mercury is a relatively distinctive contaminant in the sense that the risk of deleterious environmental effects is more strongly related to The distribution and occurrence of contaminants and the associated biological exposure in ecological systems are driven by complex interactions between contaminant sources and mobilization pathways that are overlaid upon the habitat requirements of at-risk organisms.
Moreover, landscape structure and land uses can strongly influence the driving processes of contaminant cycling, as well as the Access USGS reports and publications on mercury and water quality. Look here for help using the Pubs Warehouse. Mercury has been well known as an environmental pollutant for several decades.
As early as the 's it was established that emissions of mercury to the environment could have serious effects on human health. These early studies demonstrated that fish and other wildlife from various ecosystems commonly attain mercury levels of toxicological Streams in the northeastern U. Mercury stable isotope tracers were utilized to relate sources of Hg to co-located fish and bed sediments Prior to the short course, the SGC expressed interest in receiving training in 1 geochemistry and quality of coal; 2 geochemistry of trace elements in coal; 3 mercury and halogens in coal; 4 characterization and cycling of The U.
The National Trends Network programs include 1 a field audit An extensive monitoring record for wet and dry Hg deposition was compiled for —, including Within Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota, lake levels are controlled by a series of dams to support a variety of uses. Previous research indicates a link between these artificially maintained water levels, referred to as rule curves, and mercury concentrations in fish owing to the drying and rewetting of wetlands and other nearshore areas, Both applications require representative Hgfish estimates and, thus, are sensitive to sampling and data-treatment methods.
Data collected by fixed protocol Mercury is a ubiquitous global environmental toxicant responsible for most US fish advisories.
Processes governing mercury concentrations in rivers and streams are not well understood, particularly at multiple spatial scales.
We investigate how insights gained from reach-scale mercury data and model simulations can be applied at broader watershed We compare total mercury HgT loading and methylmercury MeHg accumulation in streams and lakes from an urbanized area Boston, Massachusetts to rural regions of southern New Hampshire and Maine. Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that accumulates in fish to levels of concern for human health and the health of fish-eating wildlife.
Much of the mercury originates from combustion of coal and can travel long Inverse empirical models can inform and improve more complex process-based models by quantifying the principal factors that control water quality variation.
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