Baseline Assessment of Contaminants in Sediments and Marine Biota of Northumberland Strait, Nova Scotia, Canada
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BASELINE ASSESSMENT OF CONTAMINANTS IN SEDIMENTS AND MARINE BIOTA OF NORTHUMBERLAND STRAIT, NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA by Meenakshi Chaudhary Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Environmental Studies at Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia December 2019 © Copyright by Meenakshi Chaudhary, 2019 i TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................................... v LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... vi ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................... viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED ................................................................................................. ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................. xi CHAPTER-1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 1 1.1 INDUSTRIAL EFFLUENTS AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS ................................................. 1 1.2 PROJECT BACKGROUND .................................................................................................... 2 1.2.1 Study Site ..................................................................................................................... 2 1.2.2 Public Concern and Boat Harbour Act........................................................................... 5 1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES...................................................................................................... 7 CHAPTER-2 LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................... 8 2.1 THE CANADIAN PULP AND PAPER INDUSTRY ..................................................................... 8 2.1.1 The Pulp Industry Process ............................................................................................ 9 2.1.2 Contaminants of Concern ........................................................................................... 11 2.1.3 Environmental Effects Monitoring (EEM) in Canada ................................................... 14 2.1.4 EEM- Pulp and Paper Effluent Regulations, 1992 ........................................................ 17 2.2 IMPACTS OF INDUTRIAL EFFLUENTS ON SEDIMENTS ........................................................ 18 2.2.1 Importance of Estuaries .............................................................................................. 18 2.2.2 Sediment as Sink and Source of Contaminants ............................................................ 19 2.2.3 Sediment as Indicator of Contamination ..................................................................... 22 2.2.4 Sediment Quality Guidelines (SQGs) ............................................................................ 23 2.3 IMPACTS OF INDUTRIAL EFFLUENTS ON BIOTA ................................................................. 24 2.3.1 Importance of Benthic Invertebrates ........................................................................... 24 2.3.2 Benthic Invertebrates as Bioindicators ........................................................................ 26 ii 2.4 HUMAN HEALTH IMPLICATIONS OF METALS IN AQUATIC BIOTA ........................................ 28 2.5 IMPORTANCE OF BASELINE DATA ....................................................................................... 29 2.6 GAPS AND INCONSISTENCIES IN MARINE BIOTA FROM NORTHUMERLAND STRAIT ............................................................................................ 30 CHAPTER-3 ASSESSMENT OF HISTORICAL AND CURRENT BASELINE CONTAMINANTS IN SEDIMENTS AND MARINE BIOTA NEAR INDUSTRIAL EFFLUENT DISCHARGE IN NORTHUMBERLAND STRAIT, NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA ............................................................ 33 3.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 33 3.2 MATERIAL AND METHODS ................................................................................................ 36 3.2.1 Review of Secondary data .......................................................................................... 36 3.3 SAMPLING ........................................................................................................................ 42 3.3.1 Sampling Stations ....................................................................................................... 42 3.3.2 Sediment Sampling and Analysis ................................................................................ 44 3.3.3 Biota Sampling and Analysis ....................................................................................... 45 3.3.4 Passive Sampling Using DGT and Analysis ................................................................... 46 3.4 QUALITY CONTROL .......................................................................................................... 56 3.5 DATA ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................ 49 3.6 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ............................................................................................... 51 3.6.1 Sediment Contaminants Concentration ..................................................................... 51 3.6.2 Biota Tissue Contaminants Concentration ................................................................. 61 3.6.3 DGTs Contaminants Concentration ............................................................................ 68 3.7 LIMITATIONS.................................................................................................................... 70 3.8 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................... 70 CHAPTER-4 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................................. 73 4.1 SUMMARY OF RESARCH .................................................................................................. 73 4.2 KEY FINDINGS ................................................................................................................. 74 4.3 MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................. 74 4.3.1 Long Term Monitoring Plans ...................................................................................... 74 iii 4.3.2 More Studies on Contaminants in Biota in Atlantic Region ......................................... 75 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................... 77 APPENDIX A ........................................................................................................................... 99 APPENDIX B ......................................................................................................................... 102 iv LIST OF TABLES TABLE 1 Required monitoring components for pulp and paper EEM programs ........................ 18 TABLE 2 Distance of sampling stations from BH ........................................................................ 42 TABLE 3 Descriptive statistics of sediment metal concentrations from sampling stations (n=12) .................................................................................................................................... 52 TABLE 4 Pearson’s correlation matrix for sediment metal concentration, TOC and grain size from sampling stations in Northumberland Strait ........................................................ 54 TABLE 5 Classification of geo-accumulation and accordingly pollution level ............................. 55 TABLE 6 Comparison of metals concentrations in sediment, mussel and lobster tissue with studies (mg/kg) ............................................................................................................ 65 TABLE 7 Descriptive statistics of sediment porewater metal concentrations from BH (n=10) .... 69 TABLE 8 Descriptive statistics of sediment porewater metal concentrations from estuary (n=9) .................................................................................................................................... 69 v LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE 1 Location of Boat Harbour in Pictou County relative to the pulp mill, communities of Pictou Landing First Nation, and the town of Pictou and final discharge point into Northumberland Strait ............................................................................................... 3 FIGURE 2 Components of Boat Harbour Treatment Facility (BHTF) ............................................. 5 FIGURE 3 Schematic illustration of a paper pulp manufacturing process .................................... 9 FIGURE 4 Location of Boat Harbour in Pictou County, Nova Scotia. Blue circle represents blue mussel (Mytilus edulis), green triangle represents rock crabs (Cancer irroratus), red circle lobsters (Homarus americanus) and yellow square clams (Mya arenaria) sampling locations. C1, C2 and C3 represent reference locations used in EEM cycles 1, 2 and 3 cycle, respectively. ........................................................................................ 31 FIGURE 5 Location of Boat Harbour in Pictou County relative to the pulp mill, communities