Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center
Sediments in the Upper Mississippi River System contain an array of contaminants from agricultural, industrial, municipal, and residential sources. A sediment-contaminant database is being developed to enhance assessment of riverine pollution and to facilitate responses to contaminant problems in the river system.
The database includes information on concentrations of metals, metalloids,
nutrients, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, insecticides, herbicides,
fungicides, industrial compounds, sterols, petroleum-related compounds,
and polychlorinated biphenyls.
Considerable care is being taken to enhance the reliability of the database. High standards are ensured through inclusion of a quality-assurance index that indicates the relative completeness of quality-assurance documentation for each data set entered therein.
To facilitate the interpretation of the contaminant data, the database provides information on sampling locations, methods of sediment collection, sample type, physical characteristics of the analyzed sediments, and other ancillary variables for each sediment sample represented.
The database can be accessed through the home page of the Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center's Web site (http://www.umesc.usgs.gov/data_library/sediment_contaminants/sediment_contaminant_page.html). This project was jointly funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Geological Survey.
The project was completed in September 2000.
Principal Investigator: Michelle Bartsch
U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://www.umesc.usgs.gov/aquatic/contaminants/mbartsch_5002537.html
Page Contact Information: Contacting the Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center
Page Last Modified:
January 29, 2016
