# Presentation: 657297

## Overview of USGS PBT Activities

- Bureau Program Coordinator,
- Contaminant Biology Program

## Scope of Activities

**   ****Data**
-  Source
-  Deposition
-  Concentrations
-  Monitoring

**Interpretation**
-  Cycling
-  Exposure
-  Effects

## Sources

- National Coal Quality Database- occurrence of mercury in coal
- Mining – mineral deposits; historic gold mining
- Statistics for mineral commodities
- Materials flow- changes in mercury use and extraction

- Source: Robert Finkelman

## US Mercury Consumption 

- http://geology.cr.usgs.gov/pub/circulars/c1197/
- http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/mercury/

- US Mercury Consumption

## Hg Deposition

- Cores in ice and snow, sediment (reservoirs, NE lakes
- National database of concentration in soil and sediment (NURE) (Hg)
- Downwind dispersion from point sources
- Lichen: National Parks and Dispersion from geothermal areas
- Atmospheric deposition MDN
- Deposition in Geologic time: effects of climate

## Ice Core Data: 270-year Record - Hg

**Major atmospheric releases**
**Natural**
**Background (42%)**
**Volcanic (6%)**
**Anthropogenic (52%)**
**Gold rush**
**WWII**
**Industrialization**

**The last 100 years**
**	****anthropogenic: 70%**
**The last 10 years**
**	****an apparent decline**

**Ice Core Data: 270-year Record - Hg**

- Source: David Krabbenhoft

## Lichen, wild rice, soil, aquatic and estuarine sediment, constructed wetlands 
Concentrations and cycling in reservoirs and impoundments and alpine lakes
Effects of fire on environmental concentrations

**Lichen, wild rice, soil, aquatic and estuarine sediment, constructed wetlands **
**Concentrations and cycling in reservoirs and impoundments and alpine lakes**
**Effects of fire on environmental concentrations**

- Concentrations

## National Contaminant Biomonitoring Program 1970-1986

- Source_x0008_: Tim Bartish, Chris Schmitt
- http://www.cerc.cr.usgs.gov/data/ncbp/ncbp.html

-    National network - temporal and geographic trends
-    Hg, PCBs and other OCs
-    Freshwater fish, starlings, and duck wings

- National Contaminant Biomonitoring Program 1970-1986

## BEST – Fish in Large Rivers

- Source: Tim Bartish

-   Shoreline or backwater areas of large, non-wadable rivers
-   Predator (bass)  and forage fish (carp or suckers)
-   Chemical (including Hg) and H4IIE analysis
-   EROD and biomarkers

##      Cycle I

- Occurrence, status and distribution
- Hg, PCBs
-  Sediment, fish liver
**VOC Synthesis**  -
- Petroleum products, other industrial chemicals

## NAWQA Cycle II 

- NAWQA Cycle II

**Hg Bioaccumulation in Fish Topical study**
- Mark Brigham - leader (_[mbrigham](mailto:mbrigham@usgs.gov)__[@usgs.gov](mailto:mbrigham@usgs.gov)_)
- Detailed cycling and food-chain analysis
- landscape types
- -- Urban, Mining, Cultivated Ag., Reference

**“****Status” sampling**
- 1x per site all study units
- Hg and MeHg and ancillary measurements
- Fish fillet (piscivorous gamefish where possible)
- Water, suspended particulates, streambed sediment,

## Databases

- Contaminant Exposure and Effects - Terrestrial Vertebrates (CEE-TV)
- Madison mercury database
- NCBP
- NAWQA
- Coal Quality Database
- Mineral Resources database
- National Geochemistry database - soils and sediment

## Slide 13

## Contaminant Exposure and Effects-Terrestrial Vertebrates Database

**WWW.PWRC.USGS.GOV/CEETV**

- Sources:
- Computerized Literature Searches
- “Gray” Literature
- Letters of Solicitation
- Telephone Inquiries
- Electronic Database Searches
- 1938 to present

**Contaminant Exposure and Effects-Terrestrial Vertebrates Database**

- Taxonomic Composition
-  10.3%   Mammals
-   83.3%  Birds
-   5.7 %   Reptiles
-   <0.5%  Amphibians

## DDE and PCB in Osprey Eggs on the Atlantic Coast 

## Interpretation

## Cycling, Transport, Bioaccumulation, Distribution

- Riverine loads from mined areas, urban areas
- Cycling in Everglades, mined areas
- Concentrations and cycling in reservoirs, impoundments and alpine lakes
- Cycling and sources in Experimental Lakes Area – METAALICUS
- Movement through aquatic food webs

## Location of WDMRL Project Sites

**NAWQA-NECB**
**Urban gradient study**

**METAALICUS **
**Hg Loading Study**

**ACME Project in**
**the Everglades**

**High Mountain Lakes**
**Mercury Study**

**Freemont Glacier Ice**
**Core Dating Study**

**Yukon River**
**Assessment**

_**Location of WDMRL Project Sites**_

**Location of NAWQA-Toxics sampling sites**

- Source: David Krabbenhoft

## HgT vs MeHg for High Elevation Lakes

- 0.000

- 0.050

- 0.100

- 0.150

- 0.200

- 0.250

- 0.300

- 0.350

- 0.400

- 0.450

- 0.00

- 1.00

- 2.00

- 3.00

- 4.00

- 5.00

**HgT  (ng/L)**

**MeHg  (ng/L)**

**National Synoptic**

**High Mountain Lakes**

**Photodemethylation**
**effect**

## Methyl Hg in High Elevation Lakes vs Total Hg in fish 

- Source: David Krabbenhoft

## Effects and Bioaccumulation

**Birds**
**Lab Toxicity: **mallards and embryos of fish-eating birds, endocrine disruption
**Field**, effects, metabolism and bioaccumulation: tree swallows, fish-eating birds, kestrels
**Aquatic Life**
**Lab**: Bass and carp health, reproductive toxicity
**Field**: Fish and Mussel bioaccumulation, Forest fire effects

- Survival of clapper rail embryos  through  90% of incubation

- Source: Gary Heinz

## Lessons Learned: 

- Reconciliation of multiple program objectives
- Divergent questions, program design, implementation strategy, and use of data
- Uses/limitations of data determined by collection and analytical protocols.

*National Water Quality Monitoring Council*

## Monitoring Solutions/goals

- 	Get people together early – design field and lab protocols to meet objectives
- 	Accept differences but document data to facilitate data selection, synthesis and use
- 	Consistent scientifically defensible and comparable data
- 	Compatible designs for monitoring programs
- 	Accepted methods to compare and interpret data

## Workgroups

- Accreditation of field and laboratory methods
- Comparability of methods and metadata
- Selection of appropriate methods National Environmental Methods Index (NEMI), (a support system)
- Interaction of watershed components: ground and surface water
- Collaboration Outreach and Publicity - states and regions
- Performance-based methods - implementing PBM for field or analytical methods