Abstract
Like other lakes in France and Europe, French Jura lakes are currently the subject of fierce controversy following a large number of research studies carried out in a variety of disciplines. The presence of abnormal quantities of certain trace metals has created a climate of apprehension among lake users and caused administrators sit up and take notice. As water reservoirs for medium- and high-altitude mountain towns and villages as well as leisure and recreation areas for large numbers of tourists, the lakes are highly-valued heritage sites. They also generate considerable income for local authorities and to a certain extent for the state.
Long-term hydrological monitoring and analysis of the sediments of nine lakes in the Franche-Comté region of eastern France has enabled the physical-chemical processes regulating their functions over the last 300 years to be understood and questions concerning the origin and extent of the lakes’ pollution to be answered. The analyses confirmed that the lakes’ water is of local origin, from within their respective catchment areas, and that it stays in the lakes for between 10 and 12 months. Isotopic analyses showed that surface water is young (H3 around -10 UT), while a graph of H2 as a function of O18 gave a surface precipitation altitude corresponding to the mean altitude of each lake’s catchment area.
The relatively high rates of heavy metals, mainly Pb, V, Zn, Cu, Ni, Co and Cr, originated from outside the basin. The isotopic ratios of Pb (204Pb, 206Pb, 207Pb and 208Pb) allowed three sources of deposits to be identified: the first is lithogenic at deep lake levels and corresponds to the composition of the continental crust; human for upper levels at depths of 0–17 cm, mainly due to industrial discharges (leaded petrol, the coal industry, steelworks, etc.); while an intermediate origin mingles both these sources. Metals are first recorded from the 1880s, the era of the Industrial Revolution. These trace metal deposits peaked in the 1960s and 1970s and have mostly begun declining. Enrichment factors were calculated by using three lithogenic elements (Th, Zr, La) and by taking the core sample from Lake Saint-Point as a base sample. This confirmed the human origin and rate of succeeding deposits since the middle of the Industrial Revolution. There are frequent exchanges between metal and water, and recent increases in the content of certain elements have caused concern.
The aim of this study was to understand the exchanges taking place at the deepest levels of the water column following changes in the physicalchemical conditions of the lakes’ environment.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Aries S (2001) Mise en évidence de contaminations métalliques historiques à partir de l’étude d’enregistrements sédimentaires de lacs de haute montagne. Thèse de Doctorat de l’Université de Toulouse III, p 243
Arnaud F (2003) PhD thesis. Université de Lille, France, p 195
Arnaud F, Revel-Rolland M, Bosch D, Winiarski T, Desmet M, Tribovillard N, Givelet N (2004) J. Environ. Monit., vol 6, pp 448–456
Appleby PG, Oldfield F (1978) The calculation of 210Pb dates assuming a constant rate of supply of unsupported 210Pb to the sediment. Catena. vol 5, pp 1–8
Appleby PG, Nolan PJ, Gifford DW, Godfrey MJ, Oldfield F, Anderson NJ, Battarbee RW (1986) 210Pb dating by low background gamma counting. Hydrobiologia, vol 141, pp 21–27
Appleby PG, Richardson N, Nolan PJ (1992) Self-absorption corrections for welltype germanium detectors. Nucl. Inst. & Methods B, vol 71, pp 228–233
Campy M (1982) Le quaternaire franc-comtois: essai chronologique et paléoclimatique. Thèse de Docteur Es Sciences naturelles. Faculté des Sciences et Techniques de l’Université de Franche-Comté, p 573
Davis R B, Norton SA, Hess CT, Brakke DF (1983) Hydrobiologia. vol 103, pp 113–123
Der Knaap, O, Norton SA, Lohse C (2005) Accumulation rates and prédominant atmospheric sources of natural and anthropogenic Hg and Pb on the Faroe Is lands. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. vol 69, edn 1, pp 1–17 Givelet N, Roos-Barraclough F, Shotyk W (2003) J. Environ. Monit. vol 5, pp 935–949
Boyle JF, Mackay AW, Rose NL, Flower RJ, Appleby PG (1998) Sediment heavy metal record in Lake Bailkal: natuel and anthropogenic sources. Journal of Paleolimnolgy, vol 20, pp 135–150
Krachler M, Le Roux G, Kober B, Shotyk W (2004) J. Anal. At. Spectrom. vol 19, pp 354–361
Norton SA (1986) Water, Air and soil pollution, vol 30, pp 331–345
Perry E, Norton SA, Kamman NC, Lorey PM, Driscoll CT (2005) Ecotoxicology. vol 14, pp 85–99
Shotyk W, Cheburkin AK, Appelby PG, Franckhauser A, Kramers JD (1996) Two thousand years of atmospheric arsenic, antimony, and lead deposition recorded in an ombrothrophic peat bog profile, Jura Mountains, Switzerland. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, vol 145, E1–E7
Shotyk W, Weiss D, Heisterkamp M, Cheburkin AK, Gloor M, Reese S (2001) Geochemistry of the peat bog at Etang de la Gruère, Jura Mountains, Switzerland, and its record of atmospheric Pb and lithogenic trace metals (Sc, Ti, Y, Zr and REE) since 12,370 14C BP. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, vol 65, pp 2337–2360
Shotyk W, Goodsite ME, Roos-Barraclough F, Frei R, Heinmeier J, Asmund G, Lohse C, Hansen TS (2003) Anthropogenic contributions to atmospheric Hg, Pb and As accumulation recorded by peat cores from southern Greenland and Danemark dated using the 14C “bomb pulse curve”. Geochimica Cosmochimica Acta, vol 67, edn 21, pp 3991–4011
Shotyk W, Goodsite ME, Roos-Barraclough F, Givelet N, Le Roux G, Weiss D, Cheburkin AK, Knudsen K, Heinmeier J, Van Wedepohl KH (1995) The composition of the continental crust. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 59, pp 1217–1232 (à mettre dans le calcul du plomb lithogénic) Touchart L De la température de l’eau à la géographie des lacs.-Thèse d’HDR, Univ. de Limoges, p 480
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2007 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Nedjai, R. (2007). Evidence of Heavy Metal Pollution in French Jura Lakes: Observed Impacts and Countermeasures. In: Gómez, J.M., Sonnenschein, M., Müller, M., Welsch, H., Rautenstrauch, C. (eds) Information Technologies in Environmental Engineering. Environmental Science and Engineering. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-71335-7_50
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-71335-7_50
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-71334-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-71335-7
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)