HISTORICAL TRENDS OF SEDIMENT LOADS - MEMORY OF AN INDUSTRIAL REGION

The chronologies are shown of sediment load on the banks of a river of the Ruhr district (Lippe) with radionuclides of radium, lead and cesi um and preliminary chemical measurements for lead, zinc, arsenic, merc ury, cadmium, barium, PAHs, PCDDs, PCDFs, PCBs, TOC, AOX and EOX. A ne w method of dating is developed and proved, which is especially suitab le for rivers with radioactivity from coal mines. The method improves the well-known excess-Pb-210-dating for the use with rivers in industr ial regions and allows the preparation of load histories (chronologies ). Conclusions are made on the historical trend of emissions in the re gion from the trend of the sediment load of known age and regular sedi mentation without perturbation.