Mercury Maps
Mercury
Maps is a tool that relates changes in mercury air deposition
rates to changes in mercury fish tissue concentrations, on a national
scale. The tool uses a reduced form of widely-accepted complex mercury
fate and transport models as applied to watersheds in which air deposition
is the sole significant source. The Mercury Maps model concludes
that for long-term equilibrium conditions, the ratio of current to future
air deposition rates will equal the ratio of current to future fish tissue
concentrations. Mercury Maps can be used to to identify
those waterbodies expected to attain state water quality standards as
a result of air deposition reductions, or to perform Total Maximum Daily
Load (TMDL) analyses for individual or multiple watersheds.
Fact Sheet
A summary on the background, environmental and public health benefits,
and technical approach of the project.
Overview Slides
A four page slide show presenting a quick overview of the Mercury Maps
project.
You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the Adobe PDF files on this page. See EPA's PDF page for more information about getting and using the free Acrobat Reader. |
Peer Reviewed Final Report - Mercury Maps: A
Quantitative Spatial Link Between Air Deposition and Fish Tissue
(PDF, 1.6mb, 61 pages) (September 2001) A report detailing the derivation
of the Mercury Maps model as well as the selection and use of mercury
source data layers. Peer-reviewed by EPA scientists, the report incorporates
their comments and includes a response-to-comments document in the Appendix.
An Additional Note on the Treatment of Pulp
and Paper Mills in the Mercury Maps Report. (PDF, 243kb, 2 pages)
(April 25, 2003)
Links
BASINS: Better
Assessment Integrating Point and Nonpoint Sources
A number of the national data coverages used in Mercury Maps were derived
directly from this GIS and environmental modeling program.
National Listing of Fish
Advisories (NLFA):
The source of the 69,000 record fish tissue mercury database used in this
project.
Fish
Tissue Human Health Water Quality Criterion for Methylmercury
Methylmercury is the form of mercury that is taken up by plant and aquatic
life and accumulates in fish. The criteria is to be used by states in
determining methylmercury levels in fish tissue.
For more information on Mercury Maps, contact: Paul Cocca at US EPA,
1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW (4305), Washington, DC 20460; e-mail: cocca.paul@epa.gov.
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