Does anyone know how much heavy metal is dumped into the ocean everyday?

Question

In addition rare earth metals are being dumped into the ocean for no better reason than the cost of not dumping.

Answer 1

The amounts of heavy metals that have been mined and ultimately wasted in the biosphere up to 1979 is astounding. In millions of tons they are: 0.5 cadmium; 20 nickel; 240 lead; 250 zinc; and 310 copper. And this discharge increases in tons each year by at least: 7,300 cadmium; 400,000 lead; 56,000 copper; 214,000 zinc; and so forth. Industrial pollution dumped into waterways also includes lead, cadmium, zinc, nickel, copper, mercury and other potentially hazardous metals (Cr, As, Co, etc.).

Baltic Sea sediments illustrate how coal fly ash alone has increased heavy metals. Cadmium is seven, lead is four and copper is two times greater than a century ago. Comparable levels are discernible on the United States coastal plain.

Mining releases many times the stream load or atmospheric rain-out of lead, copper, nickel, chromium, cadmium, zinc, silver and antimony, all of which are toxic in low concentrations. Various historical records exist that show metal pollution from mining has been toxic to plants, animals and humans. Mining destroys wildlife and results in major instabilities that threaten those who perpetrated the problem, we humans.

Sewage of industrial cities often pose a disposal problem because of toxic levels of the heavy metals: zinc, copper, nickel, cadmium and lead. The most important sources are air pollution, sewage, agricultural chemicals and industrial waste, which end up contaminating plants and soils, thereby entering our foods. Making things worse, hazardous waste has been used as fertilizer. In addition, sewage and other pollutants enter the oceans and shellfish accumulate heavy metals. For example, cadmium is 30,000 and lead 9,000 times greater in shellfish than in the surrounding waters. The resultant changes in natural biological cycles and mobilization of toxic elements by advanced industrialization are increasingly detrimental to all life on Earth.

Mercury, a heavy metal, serves as an example of this toxicity. This element is so toxic that a spill from a thermometer, those tiny drops, can seriously contaminate an entire room. Mining and mercury utilization have increased the mercury content of rivers by about four-fold or more. The "Interference Index" -- an indication of how much humans have disturbed an element's natural levels -- for mercury is the highest of those metals examined, being placed at 1,000% or ten times its natural level. The Greenland ice sheet displays a three-fold increase of mercury in the period between 1952 and 1965 when compared to 1951 and prior; it is undoubtedly worse now. High concentrations have been detected in shellfish particularly, and other fish (with tuna and swordfish as the main species involved). Soil concentrations have also increased making its presence in all foods. This does not include pesticides, paint, some batteries, fungicides, fabric softeners, air conditioning filters, furniture polish, barometers, antiseptics, thermometers, floor wax and anti-mildew agents, all of which contain mercury as an active ingredient.