Arsenic Pollution Study at Nitra-Krška Ny Location as an Example of Line Contamination

Abstract

Abstract The aim of this article was to identify the level of arsenic in soils and water as a type of line contamination with widespread environmental impact. For this purpose, as the “model locality” was chosen the Nitra River (Krškany location situated around 80 km from the original source of contamination - Zemianske Kostoľany). EcaFlow 150 analyzer was used to identify the content of arsenic in water and soil samples, SEM and EDS were used to characterize morphology, surface area, and chemical composition of primary substrate. In Nitra-Krškany, significant values of arsenic concentrations were observed for surface water, 14.75 μg l-1, which exceeded the WHO international A limit 1.5 times, for filtered water from the sediment, 149.9 μg l-1, with the present exceedance in all categories (WHO international A limit 15 times), and for soil samples, 26.6 mg kg-1, which exceeded 2.6 times the Slovak soil legal limit (10 mg kg-1). Detection of arsenic confirmed line contamination in Nitra - Krškany. As the main source responsible for contamination there was evaluated coal combustion residuals that consist of spherical aggregates from 2 μm to 1 mm dimension, non-linear topography. This type of contamination has a long-term impact due to hazardous materials and non-stable reactive surface area.