EVALUATING POTENTIAL HEAVY METAL CONTAMINATION FROM ITHACA GUN COMPANY IN THE FALL CREEK DELTA

Unintended consequences of anthropogenic activity are commonplace in a modernized society where development and industrialization are often responsible for environmental degradation. The Ithaca Gun Company, which operated for nearly a century in Ithaca, New York is an example of one such industry that may have caused severe environmental and ecological implications. The goal of this research is to understand how heavy metals, specifically arsenic, lead, and chromium which are commonly used in the manufacturing of firearms, may have contaminated the Fall Creek Delta as seen in the sediment record. Sediment cores taken from the delta will be processed and analyzed with Inductively Coupled Plasma Spectroscopy (ICP-OES/MS) to evaluate the elemental content of these lake-bed sediments. By obtaining this information, a life cycle analysis of how contaminated sediments are transported through the terrestrial and aquatic environment can be executed.