Potentially toxic elements in sediments near mines-a comprehensive approach for the assessment of pollution status and associated risk for the surface water environment.

Autor: Sakan S; Centre of Excellence in Environmental Chemistry and Engineering - Institute of Chemistry, Technology and Metallurgy, National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, University of Belgrade, Njegoševa 12, 11158, Belgrade, Serbia. ssakan@chem.bg.ac.rs., Mihajlidi-Zelić A; Centre of Excellence in Environmental Chemistry and Engineering - Institute of Chemistry, Technology and Metallurgy, National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, University of Belgrade, Njegoševa 12, 11158, Belgrade, Serbia., Sakan N; Institute of Physics, National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, University of Belgrade, Pregrevica 118, 11000, Belgrade, Serbia., Frančišković-Bilinski S; Ruđer Bošković Institute, Division for Marine and Environmental Research, Bijenička Cesta 54, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia., Kodranov I; Faculty of Chemistry, University of Belgrade, Studentski Trg 12-16, 11000, Belgrade, Serbia., Đorđević D; Centre of Excellence in Environmental Chemistry and Engineering - Institute of Chemistry, Technology and Metallurgy, National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, University of Belgrade, Njegoševa 12, 11158, Belgrade, Serbia.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Environmental science and pollution research international [Environ Sci Pollut Res Int] 2024 Mar; Vol. 31 (11), pp. 16613-16628. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Feb 06.
DOI: 10.1007/s11356-024-32178-4
Abstrakt: This research is focused on the assessment of the pollution status of river and lake sediments near Pb, Zn, and Cu mines and tailings in the southeastern part of Serbia-Krajište area. The study is based on hypothesis that investigated rivers and lakes in the Krajište area could be polluted by potentially toxic elements (PTEs) and that these elements could pose considerable ecological risk to the studied surface water environment. High PTE contents are detected in studied river sediments (up to 7892 mg kg -1 for Zn, 3224 mg kg -1 for Cu, 36,790 mg kg -1 for Pb, 64.2 mg kg -1 for Cd, and 1444 mg kg -1 for As). Given that the contents of the studied elements in most of the river sediments exceeded the background values, values prescribed by regulations of the Republic of Serbia, as well as probable effect concentration (PEL), it is possible to conclude that sediments were heavily polluted and that detrimental effects can be expected. Contamination indices including the enrichment factor (EF), contamination factor (CF), index of geoaccumulation (Igeo), potential ecological risk index (Eri), ecological risk index (RI), pollution load index (PLI), and aggregative toxicity index (ATI) were used to assess the degree of pollution by PTEs. The ecological risk assessment revealed that there is a significant risk observed for toxic elements (primarily Pb, Cu, Cd, and As) at this moment. The highest contamination indices (EF, Igeo, CF, PLI, and ATI) are mainly associated with historical and current mining activities. The Monte Carlo analysis based on the risk assessment indices was used to evaluate the uncertainty. The most pronounced toxic risk is found for the Pb, Cu, Cd, and As which assessment was in the range of high and extremely high-risk probabilities. The obtained results suggest that levels of toxic elements pose a significant ecological risk to the surface water environment near Pb, Zn, and Cu mines in the Krajište area. The methodology applied in this paper could be very useful for other researchers dealing with the problem of environmental pollution by toxic elements.
(© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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