HISTORICAL RECORD OF INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION RECOVERED FROM ABANDONED CANALS, BLACK COUNTRY, WEST MIDLANDS, UK

The long history industrial activity in the West Midlands, UK, left a legacy of environmental contamination particularly air pollution from coal burning and emissions from smelters, factories, etc. Preserved stratigraphic records are rare, however, because of the paucity of lakes in this region. We are investigating whether another legacy of the Industrial Revolution, the canal network, may provide the missing record. As industry rapidly expanded throughout the West Midlands it became necessary to move resources and manufactured goods more rapidly than horse drawn wagons permitted. The canals therefore became the primary transportation network for natural resources and manufactured goods. However, by about 1820 the expanding railroad network was able to move materials faster and cheaper and some of the canals fell into disuse and abandonment began as early as 1850. Many of these canals were filled with debris but some filled naturally and are now shallow ponds or marshes. A problem arises, however, in finding undisturbed sediment as the canals are shallow and any disturbance from occasional boat traffic throughout their history mixes the sediment. In addition, records of the history of activities along the canals associated with preservation and restoration for pleasure boat traffic are difficult to find and often best recovered from personal interviews of local long-time residents. We identified several locations with a potential for 90+ years of undisturbed natural sedimentation. Cores were acquired with Livingstone and MOCK piston corers and sediments were analyzed on Cox Analytical Itrax XRF Core Scanner to identify primarily metal contamination. Other analyses are pending at the time of writing this abstract. Preliminary assessment of the stratigraphy and environmental contamination is being used to target additional abandoned canal sites for coring.