Abstract
Road runoffs were sampled from five highways and five urban roads located in the New Juaben Municipality during the late storm events in the month of November 2014 and the early storm events in January 2015. A variety of water quality parameters such as, pH, temperature, turbidity, electrical conductivity (EC), total suspended solids (TSS), total dissolved solids (TDS), aqueous concentrations of Chloride (Cl-), Phosphate (), Nitrate () and Sulphate () ions as well as the total concentrations of some selected heavy metals (Fe, Cu, Zn, Pb, Cd, Ni and Cr) were analysed for both periods. Although the results for the studied parameters, particularly the heavy metals varied for both sampling periods, the general trend indicated an increase in accumulation from November 2014 to January 2015. This was attributed to vehicular deposition as well as other natural and anthropogenic depositions on the road surfaces during the antecedent dry weather period between the two sampling months. The highest increase in pollutant loadings was associated with the heavy metals and some physico-chemical parameters such as TSS, TDS, EC and turbidity. Generally, EC, TDS, TSS and turbidity were above the permissible limits of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of Ghana for both sampling periods. However, almost all the mean concentrations of heavy metals recorded for both road runoffs and the control samples were within the permissible limits of the Ghana EPA with some few exceptions.
Highlights
Environmental pollution has always been a problem in Ghana, despite efforts to reduce pollutant loading from point and nonpoint sources
The higher values of temperature recorded for road runoffs sampled in January 2015 as compared to those recorded for road runoffs sampled in November 2014 might be as a result of the hot weather due to the dry season
In the absence of any major industry within the municipality, it can be concluded that automobiles contribute many important heavy metals to road surface particulates which are carried by storm water as runoffs and into receiving surface waters
Summary
Environmental pollution has always been a problem in Ghana, despite efforts to reduce pollutant loading from point and nonpoint sources. Anthropogenic activities generate atmospheric emissions that mostly consist of submicron-sized particles and aerosols and play a major role in contributing to the pollution of water bodies [2]. The protection of the water resource is getting more complicated, due to the recognition of polluted runoff, as a major problem [6]. This diffuse form of pollution which is fast becoming one of the nation’s leading threats to water quality, is derived from contaminants washed off the surface of roads by rain water, and carried either directly or indirectly into waterways or groundwater [7]. It is imperative to assess road runoffs in the municipality, to be able to gather information regarding their contribution to the pollution of surface water
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