Effects of Highway-Related Pollutant on the Groundwater Quality of Turfy Swamps in the Changbai Mountain Area.

Hong Wang,Tao Zhang,Lei Nie,Yan Xu,Yuzheng Wang,Chao Du

doi:10.3390/ijerph15081652

Abstract

Transportation activities such as fuel consumption, vehicle wear and road deicing can detrimentally affect the groundwater quality of fragile roadside wetland environments including. Nineteen parameters (Cu, Pb, Zn, Cd, Cr, Ni, Hg, As, pH, TDS, Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, SO42−, Cl−, HCO3−, NO3− and F−) were determined in groundwater samples from turfy swamps impacted by highway traffic from Jiangyuan (JY), Longquan (LQ), and Huangsongdian (HSD). Our results indicate that the metals Cu, Pb, Zn, Cr, Cd, the ions Na+, K+ and Cl− in groundwater were negatively affected by highway transportation, and the maximum affected distance of these pollutants varied from 15 to 100 m. The content of most of these pollutants in roadside groundwater decreased exponentially with the distance from the highway, as did the heavy metal pollution index HPI and Cd. The values of HPI and Cd in these three sites ranged from 46.8 to 78.4 and −4.9 to −2.9, respectively. The low pollution levels of heavy metals are related to the strong adsorption capacity of turfy soil towards metals. In any case, road transport activities increased the Cu, Pb, Zn, Cr, Cd, Na+, K+ and Cl− content in roadside groundwater in turfy swamp. With the increase of highway operation time, it will inevitably have a great influence on the groundwater quality of these wetlands. Therefore, the long-term monitoring is necessary to protect the sustainable development of turfy swamp.

Highlights

Environmental pollutants from traffic infrastructure are an important subject in ecological and environmental sciences, due to their toxic effects on the biosphere [1,2,3]
Based on findings from a large-scale field investigation, we identify the types of highway-related pollutants in turfy swamp groundwater, and explore the relationships between highway-related pollutants concentrations and roadside distance, and lastly assess the heavy metal contamination levels of turfy swamp groundwater
The maximum concentrations of all heavy metals in this area are lower than the drinking water quality of China (GB/T 14848-2017)

Summary

Introduction

Environmental pollutants from traffic infrastructure are an important subject in ecological and environmental sciences, due to their toxic effects on the biosphere [1,2,3]. It is generally accepted that highway transportation activities such as the combustion of liquid fuels, vehicular component abrasion and the weathering of pavement materials can release fine particles containing Zn, Pb, Cd, Cu and Cr [4,5,6,7]. Some studies have reported that road-salting activities can increase the contents of Na+ , K+ , Cl− and NO3 − in roadside groundwater and even cause severe Cl− contamination [9,10,11,12] These highway-related pollutants are persistent and non-degradable, and can remain in the roadside environment for long periods of time. When their accumulations exceed a certain level, they will pose a threat to the microbiota, flora and fauna in turfy swamps [13]

Methods

Results

Conclusion