Heavy Metal Pollution
The pollution of the Aller by heavy metals has resulted from centuries of mining in the Harz mountains. Harz rivers, such as the Aller tributary of the Oker, picked up heavy metals from the mines and their spoil heaps. These were mainly cadmium, zinc and lead compounds that were concentrated into the suspended solids in the river. In this way these chemicals were transported by the Oker into the Aller and Weser where they were deposited in the slacker-moving sections as sediments.
In 1999 investigations were carried out into the heavy metal content of the suspended material in the Aller near Verden. They showed that the Aller was polluting the Weser disproportionally with lead, cadmium, zinc and mercury.
Famous quotes containing the words heavy, metal and/or pollution:
“That blessed mood
In which the burthen of the mystery,
In which the heavy and the weary weight
Of all this unintelligible world
Is lightened.”
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850)
“There is a lot of talk now about metal detectors and gun control. Both are good things. But they are no more a solution than forks and spoons are a solution to world hunger.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1953)
“Like the effects of industrial pollution ... the AIDS crisis is evidence of a world in which nothing important is regional, local, limited; in which everything that can circulate does, and every problem is, or is destined to become, worldwide.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)