Fluvial Transports of Mercury Pollution in the III River Basin (Northeastern France): Partitioning into Aqueous Phases, Suspended Matter and Bottom Sediments

The increase and dispersion in aquatic systems of mercury, which is not very abundant in the global environment, are mainly due to the industrial development and intensification of human activities (halogen chemicals, dental and pharmaceutic industries, agriculture, gold mining, etc.). In the Alsace region (northeastern France), the Ill river and one of its tributaries, the Thur, are the most polluted because of industrial wastewaters from the chlorine and soda industry which uses mercury as a cathode in electrolysis.