Issue |
E3S Web Conf.
Volume 98, 2019
16th International Symposium on Water-Rock Interaction (WRI-16) and 13th International Symposium on Applied Isotope Geochemistry (1st IAGC International Conference)
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Article Number | 12010 | |
Number of page(s) | 3 | |
Section | Applied Isotope Geochemistry | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/20199812010 | |
Published online | 07 June 2019 |
Sources of atmospheric pollution in the rust belt, Ohio, USA
Department of Geology & Environmental Earth Science, Miami University, Oxford, OH, USA
* Corresponding author: widome@miamioh.edu
Industrial regions in the rust belt are sites of significant legacy atmospheric pollution, and despite recent regulations, continue to be sites of ongoing atmospheric emissions of toxic metals. Source attribution in such areas is complicated by the presence of multiple potential point sources, including steel production plants and coal fired power plants. This study focuses on a region in Ohio, USA, in the vicinity of a steel manufacturing plant and coke production facility. Scanning electron microscopy of atmospheric particulate matter, combined with major and trace element and Pb and Os isotopic analysis of dust, lichen and tree bark, have been employed to identify the primary contributors to the atmospheric metal load. Our results suggest that steel production, coal burning, and traffic emissions are all significant sources of metals to the local environment.
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2019
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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