Lake Erie Chemical

During the war the CWS produced at Edgewood Arsenal and purchased from the Pennsylvania Salt Manufaemring Co. and the Lake Erie Chemical Co. a total of 1,281,560 pounds of chloroacetophenone. A portion of this went to make up 5,282,000 pounds of CNB tear gas solution, another portion went into 3,309,000 pounds of CNS solution. Almost all of this solution was stored, but some was used to fill 4.2-inch chemical mortar shells, and 75-mm., 105-mm., and 155-mm. artillery shells. 

B. Commoner, The killing of a great lake, in The 1968 World Book Year Book, Field Enterprises Educ. Corp., 1968 Lake Erie water. Chap. 5 in The Closing Circle, London, Jonathan Cape, 1972. See also A. Nisbett New Scientist, 23 March 1972, pp. 650 - 2, who argues that B. Commoner s views are unfounded Lake Erie is not dead but it is damaged. T. V. Arden, in R. Thompson (ed.). The Modem Inorganic Chemicals Industry, pp. 69- 105, Chemical Society Special Publication, No. 31, 1977. 

Hexachloroethane is rarely detected in ambient water. Data reported in the STORET database indicate that the chemical was detectable in only 1 of 882 (0.1%) ambient water samples (Staples et al. 1985). The median concentration for all samples was <10 pg/L. Hexachloroethane was detected in Lake Ontario water, but not in Lake Erie (International Joint Commission 1983). The concentration of hexachloroethane in Lake Ontario was reported at 0.02 ng/L (Oliver and Niimi 1983). It was also identified in leachate from a hazardous waste site in Niagara Falls, New York (Hauser and Bromberg 1982). Hexachloroethane was not detected in 86 samples of urban runoff from 15 cities analyzed for the National Urban Runoff Program (Cole et al. 1984). 

In New York state a reprocessing plant near Buffalo began to reprocess nuclear wastes in 1966. After 6 years Nuclear Fuel Services (NFS), a subsidiary of W.R. Grace s Davison Chemical Company, abandoned the facility. There were 2 million cubic feet of radioactive material left behind along with 600,000 gallons of radioactive liquid waste that was seeping into a creek that flows into Lake Erie the source of drinking water for Buffalo. The cost of cleanup was estimated to be 1 billion. 

On the basis of chemical profile, Wood (38) predicted that arsenic, selenium, and tellurium will be methylated in the environment, and lead, cadmium, and zinc will not. Elemental concentration in the aquatic food chain has been reported for As (39), Hg (40), Cd (41), Pb (42), and Cu (43). The biological half-life of methylmercury in fish, for example, is one to two years (44). Pillay et al. (40) implicated heavy coal burning in the mercurial contamination of plankton and fish populations of Lake Erie. Other metals, notably cadmium, have been shown to be incorporated into the grazing grasses surrounding a coal burning source (27). Trace element contamination, therefore, can enter the food chain at various points. Disposal of solid wastes in the form of ash and slag is yet another environmental consideration (45). 

The Detroit River drains all of the upper lakes into Lake Erie. Upstream from Detroit, there is a major chemical industry complex on the Canadian side of the St. Clair River, which drains Lake Huron into Lake St. Clair. The Detroit/Windsor urban area and major industrial complexes associated with automobile manufacturing may all be potential PCDD/F sources. 

Fig. 2 Pesticide usage in the Lake Erie, Lake Michigan, and Lake Superior Basins in 1995 total pesticide usages in Lakes Erie, Michigan, and Superior Basins were 8280250, 13401918, and 33422 lbs, respectively. Lake Erie Basin includes Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania Lake Michigan Basin includes Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin Lake Superior Basin includes Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin. Lrom [15] (originally from USDA/NASS Chemical survey reports for 1994-1995)...

McCall, P.L., and Fisher, J.B. (1980) Effects of tubificid oligochaetes on physical and chemical properties of Lake Erie sediments. In Aquatic Oligochaetes Biology (Brinkhurst, K.O., and Cook, D.G., eds.), pp. 253-318, Plenum Press, New York. 

The connection between technology (human-made chemical products) and the environment (Lake Erie) is an obvious STSE connection in this issue. What other connections do you see ... 

Historical fluxes of dioxins and dibenzofurans to sediment cores from Lake Erie and Siskiwit Lake (Isle Royale Czuczwa Hites, 1986) suggest that the incineration of chloro-aromatics has been an important source of dioxins and dibenzofurans. In storm sewer and creek sediment samples from the Love Canal chemical dumpsite area in Niagara Falls, N.Y. concentrations of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin from 0.9 to 312 ng/g were found (Smith et al., 1983) this compound in the Love Canal area may be associated with a heavy, chlorinated, oily residue. 

The Niagara River flows from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario and forms part of the boundary between Canada and the United States. Niagara Falls lies 35 km upstream from the in-flow site of the Niagara River to Lake Ontario. The Niagara River is one of the most polluted waterways in the world in terms of the quantity and diversity of chemicals transported to Lake Ontario (Allan et al., 1983). 

The concentrations of chlorinated benzenes in the sediments of Lake Ontario are substantially greater than those recorded for the other Great Lakes. Hexachlorobenzene, 1,4-dichlorobenzene, and 1,2,4-trichlorobenz-ene occur in particularly high concentrations averaging 94-97 fig kg This is primarily due to the input of wastewater from chemical plants at Niagara Falls (Oliver and Nicol, 1982). Although the same three compounds are also prevalent in Lakes Erie and Huron, their levels range from only 2 to 16 jug kg This can be compared with residues of 0.2-5 /ig kg in Lake Superior. 

With the development of sophisticated monitoring equipment, we have discovered that the Great Lakes, Erie and Ontario in particular, are contaminated Avith hazardous substances. Trace elements in extremely small quantities are now detectable. Unfortunately in many cases, it is virtually impossible to say how mudi of a given chemical is too much. The exhaustive and expensive testing necessary to determine the amoimts of a given chemical that are harmful has only been carried out on a fraction of the substances now in use. Some chemicals are so harmful that... 

Kemp A. L. W. and Thomas R. L. (1976) Impact of man s activities on the chemical composition in the sediments of Lakes Ontario, Erie, and Huron. Water Air Soil Pollut. 5, 469-490. 

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