Abstract
Wastewater from small-scale gold processing is causing mercury contamination in the river. It is important to know the estimation of the carrying capacity of river pollution due to mercury to support the improvement of the river ecosystem. The research objective was to calculate the load capacity of mercury pollution (Hg) in rivers around the gold mining and processing area of Pancurendang Village, Ajibarang District, Banyumas Regency, Central Java. The research begins with river discharge measurements. River discharge is measured by referring to SNI 8066: 2015. Water sampling was carried out at 12 river points with a purposive method that took into account the location (upstream, middle, downstream) and river characteristics, according to SNI 6989-78: 2008. Actual mercury levels in river water were tested at the UGM Integrated Research and Testing Laboratory (LPPT) with Mercury Analyzer. The results of the mercury and discharge levels are used to calculate the actual pollution load. The maximum pollution load is based on the quality standard of mercury in class 2 rivers, namely 0.005 ppm multiplied by river discharge. The load capacity of mercury pollution is obtained from the difference between the maximum pollution load and the actual pollution load. The results of river discharge measurements at the research location are quite varied, ranging from 0.0024-2.925 meters/second. The results of the calculation of the carrying capacity of mercury pollution loads in the river area around the gold mining and processing of Pancurendang Village show a range of 0.0000048-0.005904 kg/day with an average of 0.001325948 kg/day. The capacity of the river in Pancurendang Village has not exceeded its capacity.
Highlights
There were small-scale gold mining activities in Indonesia in 2001 with a total of 713 locations spread across Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan, and Sulawesi with 60,000 individual and group miners (Aspinall, 2001)
The gold processing business using mercury should not dispose of its waste into the river flow so that there is no mercury contamination in the surrounding environment, but in reality, many small-scale traditional gold miners dispose of wastewater from gold processing directly into the surrounding rivers
Aswadi's (2012) research results related to the Mercury Pollution Control Model due to People's Gold Mining in the Poboya River, Palu City, states that heavy metals Cd, Pb, and Hg were detected at all stations
Summary
There were small-scale gold mining activities in Indonesia in 2001 with a total of 713 locations spread across Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan, and Sulawesi with 60,000 individual and group miners (Aspinall, 2001). In 2010, this number increased to 900 locations with 250,000 miners (Ismawati, 2010) Most of these mining activities are unlicensed and use mercury in gold processing. The gold processing business using mercury should not dispose of its waste (tailings) into the river flow so that there is no mercury contamination in the surrounding environment, but in reality, many small-scale traditional gold miners dispose of wastewater from gold processing directly into the surrounding rivers. The research objective was to calculate the load capacity of mercury pollution (Hg) in rivers around the gold mining and processing area of Pancurendang Village, Ajibarang District, Banyumas Regency, Central Java. The data input related to the load capacity of mercury pollution in this area is hoped to be used as a consideration in determining environmental pollution control efforts so that the water quality standards set by the government can still be met
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