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The impact of a chlor-alkali plant on Onondaga Lake and adjoining systems

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Abstract

The pervasive effects an adjoining chlor-alkali plant has had on Onondaga Lake, and the river system that receives the lake discharge, are documented. Effects of the ionic waste discharge of the facility include: (1) ionic enrichment, (2) altered stratification regimes, (3) altered exchange between the lake and river, (4) altered hydrodynamics in the river downstream of the lake, (5) precipitation and deposition of large quantities of calcium carbonate, and (6) altered chemistry of lake sediments regulating P availability. Mercury, benzene, chlorobenzene wastes from the plant have contaminated the sediments and fish of the lake. Deleterious effects of the facility have included: the elimination of fish habitat, exacerbation of the problem of limited Oz resources of the hypolimnion, contamination offish flesh, exacerbation of the problem of low transparency of the lake, and severe O2 depletion in the lower waters of the river system.

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  1. Upstate Freshwater Institute, Inc., Box 506, 13214, Syracuse, NY, USA

    Steven W. Effler

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Effler, S.W. The impact of a chlor-alkali plant on Onondaga Lake and adjoining systems. Water Air Soil Pollut 33, 85–115 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00191380

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