Exchange of Heavy Metals Between Sediment Components and Water

Sediments are both carriers and potential sources of contaminants in aquatic systems, and these materials may also affect groundwater quality and agricultural products when disposedon land. Such problems have initially been recognized for inorganic chemicals in the early and middle sixties from the studies on artificial radionuclides in the Columbia and Clinch Rivers by Sayre et al. (1963) and on heavy metals in the Rhine River system by De Groot (1966). In the early seventies, following the catastrophic events of cadmium- and mercury-poisoning in Japan, sediment-associated metal contaminants received public attention, for example, with severe effects on aquatic ecosystems in the Wabigoon River, Laurentian Great Lakes, SwedishLakes, and in many past and present mining areas all over the world (Förstner & Wittmann, 1979).