Project leader: Dr. Mike Parsons

To provide decision-makers and stakeholders with geoscience knowledge essential to assess and manage risks posed by metals in the environment. Activities will quantify the exposure of Canadians to chemical species of ecosystem and human health concern, either in excess or deficiency, and will identify critical processes involved in metal release, transport and fate to assist in developing risk-management strategies. Outputs will provide the appropriate geoscience knowledge to manage risk; for example, clients will have sufficient understanding of ambient concentrations of metals in the environment to identify areas that exceed specified limits in the Canada-wide Standards and Environmental Quality Guidelines. Activities will identify environments that are liable to cause health risk, and provide geoscience data to support informed risk assessments. Outcomes will be realized by working directly with clients to ensure that ESS results play a key role in future risk-management decisions.

This project identifies risks associated with metals released into the Canadian surface environment from natural sources and activities related to their exploitation. Studies will define areas posing risks to ecosystem and human health, and will lead to a better understanding of processes that affect the distribution and fate of metals. The former knowledge contributes to risk assessment, the latter to developing risk-management strategies. The project consists of four main activities:

1. Development of models and protocols to support the implementation of a North American soil monitoring program
2. Risk-assessment mapping based on geochemical data
3. Assessment of risks associated with abandoned metal mines
4. Development of geochemical models to expand our knowledge of soil mineralogy