Signature isotopique du plomb pour le marquage de la contamination des sols à proximité d'une fonderie de métaux, nord-ouest du Québec, Canada.

• Main Author: Hou, Xiaohong
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2004
• Subjects: plomb; contamination; sols; fonderie; métaux; isotope; Québec; Baleine; Canada; Grande rivière de la Baleine; la Baleine; Grande Rivière de la Baleine; Mite
• Online Access: https://espace.inrs.ca/id/eprint/382/; https://espace.inrs.ca/id/eprint/382/1/T000311.pdf

The symbols and special characters used in the original abstract could not be transcribed due to technical problems. Please use the PDF version to read the abstract. The Rouyn-Noranda region is one in which numerous mining and smelting activities have taken place since the opening of the Home mine in 1922 and the construction of the Home smelter in December 1927. Before the program "Rouyn-Noranda Ville En Santé" was launched in 1987, the mining and smelting community had earned a reputation as the most polluted city in Canada because of serious environmental problems such as sulfur dioxide plumes, heavy metal fallout as well as acid rain. This project is part of the Metals in the environment (MITE) program of the Geological Survey of Canada. The major objectives of this project are: 1) to determine the extent of Pb contamination of soils exposed to Home smelter emissions; 2) to distinguish the source of anthropogenic lead in soils using stable Pb isotope ratios; and 3) to estimate the downward migration of Pb in representative mesic soils. Seventy five (75) samples were collected from podzolic soil profiles at eight (8) sites, six (6) of which lie along a northeast-southwest transect crossing Rouyn-Noranda, northwestem Quebec, while the other two (2) are from Grande Rivière de la Baleine region, approximately 800 km north of Rouyn-Noranda. Pb concentrations and Pb isotopic compositions were determined on the fine-grained fraction of soil samples leached by three extraction methods ofincreasing agressivity: (1) Mehlich-III, (2) 0.25 M HCI, and (3) total digestion by an acid mixture of HF, HN03, HCI, and HCI04. Pb is enriched in the surface organic horizons at all sites in Rouyn-Noranda. Its concentration decreases by two orders of magnitude from the surface organic horizons to the underlying mineraI horizons. Pb isotope ratios are low in surface organic horizons, and they increase sharply in the mineraI horizons. Along the NE-SW transect, average Pb concentration is as high as 869 ppm in organic horizons at site ...