Does anybody know the salt content of Lake Ontario? If so what is it?

Question

does anybody know the salt content of Lake Ontario? If so what is it?

Answer 1

Near zero, as it is a fresh water lake. One cubic foot of Great Lakes water contains about 1/6 of an ounce of salt. One cubic foot is about 7.5 gallons. A gallon weighs about 8.3 pounds, so 7.5 gallons is about 62.3 pounds. 0.01 pounds of salt occupies 62.3 pounds of Great Lakes later - only 0.016%! Nero zero.

Source: Lake Michigan (another Great Lake) is referenced in the following article.

http://www.palomar.edu/oceanography/salt...

"The saltiness of the ocean is more understandable when compared with the salt content of a fresh-water lake. For example, when 1 cubic foot of sea water evaporates it yields about 2.2 pounds of salt, but 1 cubic foot of fresh water from Lake Michigan contains only one one-hundredth (0.01) of a pound of salt, or about one sixth of an ounce. Thus, sea water is 220 times saltier than the fresh lake water."

Answer 2

Wow, not that easy to find, actually.  It's about 200 ppm, give or take.  I found a reference that said 250 ppm tds (total dissolved solids, which is salinity) in 1963, and some US EPA conductance data that indicate TDS values in the low to mid 200s in 1994.