H
ad the distinct pleasure of attending the 3rd Annual CA Water Boards Science Symposium in person from June 20 – 21, 2018 at the Ziggurat Building in West Sacramento.
The “unveiling” and short introduction of each subject covered within the 2018 Water Quality Status Report occurred on the final day of the event in the late afternoon. It was during this presentation that a very interesting comment was made expressing confusion as to why there was a lack of bioaccumulated Methylmercury (CH3Hg+) concentration data in certain water bodies of California. The comment intrigued me, so I decided to address it as a question here, as follows:
In considering the “blank spots” seen on the Map of California under “Figure 14. The Most Recent Mercury Concentration in Largemouth Bass (2007) by Jay DAVIS”, I wondered if the following considerations had been made…
First, the geogenic sources (in addition to anthropogenic sources) of Hg within the particular Geomorphic provinces in question (i. e., parts of the “Great Valley”, “Tranverse Range”, and “Mojave Desert”).
Second, the presence of anthropogenically sourced nitrates (i. e., Agriculture) within the water columns measured, which would greatly disrupt Hg2+methylation in aqueous sediments; blocking CH3Hg+ formation, and thus control bioavailability to organisms within that particular aquatic environment.
Selected Research Articles:
Whole lake nitrate addition for control of methylmercury in mercury contaminated Onodaga Lake, NY (MATTHEWS et al., 2013)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001393511300073X
Evidence for Regulation of Monomethyl Mercury by Nitrate in Seasonally Stratified, Eutrophic Lake (TODOROVA et al., 2009)
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es900887b
Mercury deposits of western California: an overview (STUDEMEISTER, 1984)
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00199786https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00199786
Therefore, perhaps the provided information might serve to eludicate the underscored “discrepancy”.
Interesting Vendor and Poster Presenter met at the Symposium:
Ian BAILEY from Arable Labs, Inc.
Arable – Decision Agriculture
and…
Scott D. WARNER from RAMBOLL
Remediation and water resource protection under changing conditions (ROWE et al., 2017)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352186417301025
C. Mei-Ling HAMILTON - Environmental Geochemistry Issues 