title: Reconstructing Early Industrial Contributions to Legacy Trace Metal Contamination in Southwestern Pennsylvania.
abstract: Early industrial trace metal loadings are poorly characterized but potentially substantial sources of trace metals to the landscape. The magnitude of legacy contamination in southwestern Pennsylvania, the cradle of North American fossil fuel industrialization, is reconstructed from trace metal concentrations in a sediment core with proxies including major and trace metal chemistry, bulk density, and magnetic susceptibility. Trace metal chemistry in this sediment record reflects 19th and 20th century land use and industry. In particular, early 19th century arsenic loadings to the lake are elevated from pesticides used by early European settlers at a lakeside tannery. Later, sediment barium concentrations rise, likely reflecting the onset of acidic mine drainage from coal operations. Twentieth century zinc, cadmium, and lead concentrations are dominated by emissions from the nearby, infamous Donora Zinc Works yet record both the opening of a nearby coal-fired power plant and amendments to the Clean Air Act. The impact of early industry is substantial and rivals more recent metal fluxes, resulting in a significant potential source of contaminated sediments. Thus, modern assessments of trace metal contamination cannot ignore early industrial inputs, as the potential remobilization of legacy contamination would impact ecosystem and human health.
authors.affiliation: Department of Geology and Environmental Science, University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, United States.
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-7819-1068
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Rossi
authors.affiliation: Department of Geology and Environmental Science, University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, United States.
authors.forename: Daniel J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Bain
authors.affiliation: School of Geosciences, University of Louisiana at Lafayette , Lafayette, Louisiana 70503, United States.
authors.forename: Aubrey L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Hillman
authors.affiliation: Department of Geology and Environmental Science, University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, United States.
authors.forename: David P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Pompeani
authors.affiliation: Department of Geology and Environmental Science, University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, United States.|Department of Environmental Engineering & Earth Sciences, Wilkes University , Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania 18766, United States.
authors.forename: Matthew S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Finkenbinder
authors.affiliation: Department of Geology and Environmental Science, University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, United States.
authors.forename: Mark B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Abbott
mesh_terms: D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D060106:Lakes / Q000737:chemistry; D010414:Pennsylvania; D014131:Trace Elements; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
chemical_list: D014131:Trace Elements; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical