1. Mercury in the Everglades Rebecca Barefoot EnvE 524

2. The Everglades

3. Once covered 11,000 miles of South Florida “The River of Grass” – 60 miles wide in some places. Only 6 inches deep in others. Marshy mix of salt and freshwater. Only place where Alligators and Crocodiles live side-by-side Altered and reduced flows have reduced diversity and native plant and animal life.

4. Florida Department of Environmental Protection Actions Pushed for reductions from mercury emitting sources. Monitoring of water and fish in everglades 30 year Restoration Plan begun in 2000. Political issue Presidential Election in 2004

5. Anthropogenic Mercury Sources Combustion Processes (90%) –Coal-fired power generation –Medical waste incinerators –Municipal waste combustors Manufacture of metals, alkali, and cement Incinerators Landfills Dental Preparations and Laboratory Procedures Pigment Manufacture Geothermal Power Generation

6. Natural Mercury Sources Volcanoes Forest Fires Mount St. Helens Forest Fire in Yellowstone Park

7. Mercury Data USGS Toxic Substances Hydrology Program National Assessment of Mercury in Aquatic Ecosystems 1995 to 1999 Three types of Mercury –Particulate Methyl Mercury –Filtered Methyl Mercury –Filtered Total Mercury Mercury in the environment is complex!!

8. From Florida Department of Environmental Management Website

9. Analysis Temporal in nature GIS is limiting For each location: –Averaged multiple data for same days –Then averaged data for entire year Saved data as comma separated value (csv) Added csv to ArcGIS Added x and y data from csv Used symbology tab to indicate the year or field to graph

10. Particulate Methyl Mercury (ng/L)

11. Filtered Methyl Mercury (ng/L) 1995 1999 Minus 1995 1999 1998 1997 1996

12. Filtered Methyl Mercury Percent Change F1 3a-15 2bs U3

13. Filtered Total Mercury (ng/L)

14. Filtered Total Mercury Percent Change F1 U3

15. FMM: Filtered Methyl Mercury FTM: Filtered Total Mercury Did not use Particulate Methyl Mercury Data since it had few locations with multiple years of data. F1 U3 3a-33 L67@S151 3a-15

16. Results and Future Recommended Analysis Mercury either stayed the same or increased from 1995 to 1999. Methyl Mercury did not change much. Total Mercury tended to stay the same or increase. Look at more recent data. Use data from Storet source.