Status of Mercury Monitoring in Maryland
John Sherwell
Maryland Department of Natural Resources
Annapolis, MD
There is a state-wide fish consumption advisory for all fresh water impoundments in Maryland. These advisories are linked to the inputs of mercury by atmospheric deposition. The links between the fish tissue burden of methyl mercury and the precursor inputs of mainly inorganic forms from the atmosphere is complex. The State is seeking cost effective monitoring programs that can add to the state of science in understanding the biogeochemistry of mercury and also provide tools to understand the trends in target species as local and national mercury controls are implemented. Comprehensive mercury control requirements at coal-fired electricity generating units in the state was recently passed. In addition comprehensive federal rules are anticipated. Establishing current baselines of deposition and mercury in selected target species will allow the efficacy of emission controls efforts to be assessed. This poster will describe four programs currently being implemented to address these objectives. These are:
- Ambient air and wet deposition monitoring,
- Soil flux and dry deposition measurements including the use of surrogate surfaces,
- Young-of-the-year surveys, and
- Instrumented watershed studies.
The status of the programs and data highlights will be discussed.