Gaseous Elemental Mercury: How do Anthropogenic and Meteorological conditions impact

mercury concentrations in an urban environment?Wilfredo ‘Alex’ Sanchez 1,2, Charles T. Driscoll Jr 2, Mario Montesdeoca 2, Myron J. Mitchell 3

1 Onondaga Community College, Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program, 2 Syracuse University, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering,

3 SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry

Introduction

Annual amounts of mercury released into the air by human activities are between 50 to 75 percent of the total yearly input to the atmosphere from all sources. Mercury (Hg) is emitted from incinerators and fossil fueled electric utilities predominantly as Gaseous Elemental Mercury (GEM) vapor (Hg0), reactive gaseous mercury (Hg2+), and particulate bound mercury (Hg(p)). Gaseous Elemental Mercury Vapor (Hg0) has an estimated residence time in the atmosphere of greater than a year.

Objective

Method & Site Location

Results

Conclusion

Future Work

References

Tekran, Mercury in the Atmosphere, Standard Operating Procedure: Atmospheric Mercury Measurements, 6 January 2000. Holsen, Thomas M., (2011, June 21), Variation in Concentrations of Three Mercury (Hg) Species at a Rural and Suburban Site in New York State, Table 2.

Ground-level GEM in urbanized environments is more impacted by local Meteorological & Anthropogenic events. (Chart # 1 - 4)Tower GEM corresponds with the Hg concentrations of other Hg studies conducted within the greater region. (Table # 1)

Table 1 - Average Concentrations with respect to region

Hg ConcentrationRochester 1.6 ± 0.4 ng/m ³Syracuse (Tower) 1.5 ± 0.3 ng/m ³Syracuse (Ground) 2.4 ± 0.5 ng/m ³Huntington Forest 1.4 ± 0.3 ng/m ³

Rochester

Syracuse

Tower

Ground

Measurements taken at the Syracuse Center of Excellence (CoE) Tower.

The Syracuse CoE Tower is located within 240 meters (790 ft) of the position at which two major interstates (I-81 & I-690) intersect.

Tekran 1135 – Particulate Bound Mercury (Hg(p))

Tekran 1130 - Reactive Gaseous Mercury (Hg2+)

Collect data at this site location for the other two species of Atmospheric Mercury, CO2 and Ozone.

Acknowledgements

A special thanks to Syracuse University, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Syracuse Center of Excellence, Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, Shannon Buckley, Aimee Clinkhammer, Geoffrey Millard, and Patrick McHale.

To observe the patterns in GEM Concentration with respect to weather conditions and local area events.

Chart # 3 Comparison - Humidity vs. Mercury Concentration (Ground)

Chart #4 – Anthropogenic Event

A spike was noted, with a recorded value 4 times greater than average concentrations. Local security footage found that an 18-Wheel Tractor Trailer was parked (idling) across the street from the Site Location.

Average Mercury concentration measurements taken at 6 feet and 150 feet.

Use of the Tekran 2537A, provides continuous automated monitoring samples every 10 minutes.

Tower

Ground

Graph 1 – Fall 2010 Mercury Concentration (ng/m^3) vs. Time (days) Graph 2 – Summer 2011 Mercury Concentration (ng/m^3) vs. Time (days)

Chart # 3 – Mostly Sunny DaysChart # 2 – ThunderstormsChart # 1 – Cloudy Days

08:56 AM

09:17 AM

09:18 AM

09:18 AM

HuntingtonForest