Preliminary Environmental Assessment of the Contamination Associated with Lake Calumet, Cook County, Illinois

摘要

The report details the results of a multidisciplinary study to determine the level of contamination of Lake Calumet in Cook County, Illinois. The study was initiated to evaluate the physical, chemical and biological processes that influence the environmental quality of the lake and the surrounding area and to predict the ecological effects of the contamination associated with lake sediments. Some principal findings of the study include: (1) concentrations of toxic metals are above background levels and higher in the lake than in nearby water bodies; (2) all sediment sampling stations produced toxic responses in single-species bioassays, with over half the stations classified as 'highly toxic'; and (3) community-level bioassays showed toxic effects at 71% of sampling stations.