Equipment for analysis of trace mercury in treated water

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This proposal is directed toward acquisition of an analytical instrument for the analysis of trace concentrations of mercury in water. This instrument will support a rapidly growing research program focused on the development of novel technologies to reduce the flux of mercury to the environment. There are numerous locations in the world where mercury has been released to the environment due to past industrial activities, resulting in accumulation of mercury in soils and sediments. This mercury can then be released slowly over many decades, continuously entering the food chain. Because of the very high toxicity of mercury, there is increasing regulatory pressure around the world to limit the release of mercury from contaminated sites to very low concentrations. Our research program is directed at developing cost effective management approaches to minimize the release of this highly toxic contaminant and prevent uptake into biota. Studies are being conducted to assess the effectiveness of stabilization techniques, which limit the long-term release of mercury to the environment. These techniques involve co-blending reactive media with mercury contaminated sediments and soils to minimize release of mercury and its transformations. The equipment requested will provide analyses of very low concentrations of mercury in an automated, rapid manner by employing gold concentration followed by cold-vapour atomic fluorescence. The equipment will provide analyses in the sub nanogram per liter range. These low detection limits are required to evaluate whether the proposed stabilization approaches can effectively control mercury at concentrations that are protective of the environment.