Analysis of Mercury Isotopes in Lake Sediments

The scientific authority is leading studies on the deposition of mercury in lake sediments under Environment Canada’s Clean Air Regulatory Agenda program. In this program sediment cores have been collected from more than 20 lakes across Canada. The project now has a large collection of cores from 5 provinces (AB, SK, MB, ON, NS) with include background as well as industrially impacted locations. Some work on mercury isotopes in sediments near Flin Flon, in Lake Wabamun near coal fired plans, and around the Horne smelter near Rouyn-Noranda has already been published. From this preliminary work it is clear that a larger survey will help establish the usefulness of mercury isotope ratios for identifying sources and also contribute to understanding o possible biological processing of mercury in sediments.

Environment Canada is seeking an outside laboratory to conduct the analyses of mercury isotope ratios in sediment samples. The contracted laboratory would be required to demonstrate that it has the necessary experience and instrumentation to conduct the analysis and that it can meet rigorous quality assurance criteria including low laboratory blank contamination, consistency of performance in the analysis of certified reference materials, and evidence of contributions to scientific publications on mercury isotope ratios in sediments. Approximately 250 samples are available for analysis.

The proposed contract will be from the date of contract award 31 March 2014.