Chloride Loading to Lake Ontario from Onondaga Lake, New York

The recent history of chloride loading to Lake Ontario is described from the single largest source, Onondaga Lake, located in metropolitan Syracuse, New York. The mean annual release of chloride from Onondaga Lake was 7.65 × 10 5 metric tons for the period 1970–1981, representing approximately 12% of the total load to Lake Ontario for that period. Approximately 85% of the load from Onondaga Lake originates from an adjacent chlor-alkali production plant. It is projected that the expected discontinuance of this manufacturing operation will reduce the current chloride levels in Lake Ontario by 1.3 mg • L −1 and the future long-term concentration by 3.2 mg • −1