La contamination de l'étang de Bages-Sigean par le cadmium - Première évaluation

High levels of cadmium in soft parts of mussels from the Bages-Sigean pond (located to the south of Narbonne, France) have been identified by the National Chemical Monitoring Network (Réseau National d'Observation de la Qualité du Milieu Marin, RNO). To explain this situation, a sampling of water, sediments, and mussels was organised in April 1990. Very high concentrations of dissolved cadmium have been measured in the pond waters and in some of its drainage basin canals (32.4 to 998.0 ng.l-1). This heavy contamination seems to come from an industrial zone located along the Tauran canal, above Narbonne, and shows the same exceptional feature than the pollution of the Gironde estuary.