title: Environmental impacts of the Tennessee Valley Authority Kingston coal ash spill. 1. Source apportionment using mercury stable isotopes.
abstract: Mercury stable isotope abundances were used to trace transport of Hg-impacted river sediment near a coal ash spill at Harriman, Tennessee, USA. δ(202)Hg values for Kingston coal ash released into the Emory River in 2008 are significantly negative (-1.78 ± 0.35‰), whereas sediments of the Clinch River, into which the Emory River flows, are contaminated by an additional Hg source (potentially from the Y-12 complex near Oak Ridge, Tennessee) with near-zero values (-0.23 ± 0.16‰). Nominally uncontaminated Emory River sediments (12 miles upstream from the Emory-Clinch confluence) have intermediate values (-1.17 ± 0.13‰) and contain lower Hg concentrations. Emory River mile 10 sediments, possibly impacted by an old paper mill has δ(202)Hg values of -0.47 ± 0.04‰. A mixing model, using δ(202)Hg values and Hg concentrations, yielded estimates of the relative contributions of coal ash, Clinch River, and Emory River sediments for a suite of 71 sediment samples taken over a 30 month time period from 13 locations. Emory River samples, with two exceptions, are unaffected by Clinch River sediment, despite occasional upstream flow from the Clinch River. As expected, Clinch River sediment below its confluence with the Emory River are affected by Kingston coal ash; however, the relative contribution of the coal ash varies among sampling sites.
authors.affiliation: Department of Geology, 208 Natural History Building, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA. gbartov2@illinois.edu
authors.forename: Gideon
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bartov
authors.forename: Amrika
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Deonarine
authors.forename: Thomas M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ruhl
authors.forename: Avner
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vengosh
authors.forename: Heileen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hsu-Kim
mesh_terms: D060729:Coal Ash; D004190:Disasters; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000032:analysis; D008628:Mercury / Q000032:analysis*; D008629:Mercury Isotopes / Q000032:analysis; D045483:Rivers / Q000737:chemistry; D013714:Tennessee; D014876:Water Pollution
chemical_list: D060729:Coal Ash; D008629:Mercury Isotopes; D008628:Mercury