Osmium Isotopes Demonstrate Distal Transport of Contaminated Sediments in Chesapeake Bay

Abstract

Because the isotopic composition of anthropogenic Os is normally distinctive in comparison to continental crust and is precisely measurable, this platinum-group element is attractive as a tracer of transport pathways for contaminated sediments in estuaries. Evidence herein and elsewhere suggest that biomedical research institutions are the chief source of anthropogenic Os. In the Chesapeake Bay region, uncontaminated sediments bear a crustal 187 Os/ 188 Os signature of 0.73 ± 0.10. Slightly higher 187 Os/ 188 Os ratios occur in Re-rich Coastal Plain deposits due to post-Miocene 187 Re decay. The upper Susquehanna Basin yields sediments also with higher 187 Os/ 188 Os. Beginning in the late 1970s, this signal was overprinted by a low 187 Os/ 188 Os (anthropogenic) source in the lower Susquehanna Basin. In the vicinity of Baltimore, which is a major center of heavy industry as well as biomedical research, anthropogenic Os has been found only in sediments impacted by the principal wastewater treatment plant. Surprisingly, a mid-Bay site distant from anthropogenic sources contains the strongest anthropogenic Os signal in the data set, having received anthropogenic Os sporadically since the mid-20th Century. Transport of particles to this site overrode the northward flowing bottom currents. Finding anthropogenic Os at this site cautions that other particle-borne substances, including hazardous ones, could be dispersed broadly in this estuary.