Pollution tied to fires in Quebec

POTSDAM — The haze that hung over most of the north country last summer brought lots of pollution with it, according to a recently published article out of Clarkson University.

Forest fires that burned thousands of acres in Quebec over Memorial Day weekend brought the haze and pollutants to the north country, prompting notices from emergency services in St. Lawrence County. The smoke was here for only a day; winds shifted and sent it back north June 1.

"I read about the fires in the Quebec newspaper and I was thinking that I could see this impacting our region," said Yungang "Carl" Wang, who is working on a doctorate in civil and environmental engineering at Clarkson. "I was traveling to Syracuse the next day and could see the sky was smoky and hazy. That's where I sort of started this work."

Mr. Wang and his adviser, Philip A. Hopke, already were monitoring air quality at three sites in the north country, but they used their data to produce a paper about the effects of the fire on air quality in the area.

They found that particulates in the air increased 18 times the normal level, well above federal Environmental Protection Agency acceptable levels. But what was more interesting to them, they said, was what they found about mercury levels in the air.

"Fire is helping to mobilize mercury that is then going to move to some other ecosystems," said Mr. Hopke, director of the university's Institute for a Sustainable Environment. "The basic threat is going to be the accumulation in the ecosystem."

Mercury comes in two forms, usually: liquid and gas. Gaseous mercury can be absorbed into rainwater and then work its way up the food chain, including into vegetables and animals.

Though the scientists noticed a "significant" increase in mercury levels, because the haze was around for only one day, it is not something that north country residents should worry about, they said.

"In terms of a general public health front, this isn't a big deal," Mr. Hopke said. "The amount that's being deposited is pretty low, so the amount that's being deposited into what's going into the farmers markets is relatively low."

Though it can come from forest fires, gaseous mercury also comes from coal-fired power plants. Pollutants from the plants can blow all over the place, making scientists and environmentalists more concerned about what happens to ecosystems everywhere. Also, because mercury can be moved around in the haze of forest fires, even if coal-burning plants disappear, the pollutants will not disappear with them.

"It adds to the difficulty of getting the mercury out of the ecosystem," Mr. Hopke said. "Right now, we have fish advisories for virtually all of New York state."