It is interesting that this article refers to a tannery and doesn't mention the word 'chromium' in the process. In the 19th Century chromium was intoduced into

It is interesting that this article refers to a tannery and doesn't mention the word 'chromium' in the process. In the 19th Century chromium was intoduced into the tanning process as an alterative or adjunct to using tannin/tannic acid for converting skins and hides into leather. It turned out that chromium was particularly effective in tanning leather albeit a toxic one. (It has been since abandoned for this purpose.) I'm therefore surprised not to see mention of large-scale chromium pollution on the site - given the age of the plant it'd be very surprising if chromium wasn't present. Given the toxicity of chromium salts I'm also surprised it isn't a big deal in and of itself (and that chromium isn't mentioned by name as the principal polluting agent). BTW, it's a shame that chromium is toxic because it's an excellent agent for preserving leather. This fact was brought home to me a few years back when I saw a documentary that showed part of a WWI battlefield in Belgium that was being made way for a factory. As part of the preparation, battlefield archeologists were scouring and documenting the area before the factory was built and in the process they came across the bodies of soldiers from that conflict. Essentially, nothing remained of these soldiers other than their skeletons and their boots - and the boots were in near perfect condition in that the chromium used in their tanning process had preserved them that way under the moist ground for nearly a century. Apparently, the chromium salts in the leather had stopped any bacterial action taking hold, thus keeping the leather well preserved.