Comparison of Pollution Indicies in Assessing the Heavy Metal(loid)s Pollution of Arable Soils Adjacent to Industrial Complex in Gyenggi-do

Abstract

Soils adjacent to the industrial complexes are known to be vulnerable to pollution with the diverse pollutant sources. This research assessed pollution level in the arable soils located nearby industrial complexes using different pollution indices. Both surface (0 - 15 cm) and subsurface (15 - 30 cm) soil samples were taken from 150 agricultural fields located nearby 15 industrial complexes. Total concentrations of As, Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn, and Hg in soils were determined after extracting with aqua regia and mostly were lower than the pollution threshold criteria for the agricultural soil designated by the Korean Soil Environment Conservation Act. The calculated PI values for As indicated the unpolluted status but those for all other metals were in the ranges of low to moderately polluted. The Igeo values for Cd and Zn indicated soils were in the unpolluted to moderately polluted ranges, but those for other metals were unpolluted. The Igeo evaluated the pollution level lower than PI due to the geochemical correction factor. The average PINemerow values for surface soil and subsurface soils were 1.26 and 0.73, respectively, indicating a higher pollution in surface soil than subsurface soil. Ranges of PINemerow values showed a wide spectrum of pollution level from clean to heavy pollution, depending on soil sampling sites. All pollution indices indicate that levels of pollution for Cd were higher than other metals. Also four pollution indices exhibited different levels of pollution, even though they are equally based on the total concentrations of heavy metals in soil. This discrepancy might be derived from the fact whether a pollution index considers the geochemical background level, an individual metal or overall metals. The results suggest that a suitable pollution index for the pollution assessment cannot be specified based on the total concentrations of metal in the arable soil. Pollution assessments of the arable soils using (A) single pollution index and (B) geoaccumulation index for each heavy metals, and (C) Nemerow pollution index for the integrated heavy metals in each industrial complex.