Environmental geochemistry of El Temsah Lake sediments, Suez Canal district, Egypt

Abstract

The heavy metal contents of Mn, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cr, Co, Pb, Cd, Fe, and V in the surface sediments from five selected sites of El Temsah Lake was determined by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Geochemical forms of elements were investigated using four-step sequential chemical extraction procedure in order to identify and evaluate the mobility and the availability of trace metals on lake sediments, in comparison with the total element content. The operationally defined host fractions were: (1) exchangeable/bound to carbonate, (2) bound to Fe/Mn oxide, (3) bound to organic matter/sulfides, and (4) acid-soluble residue. The speciation data reveals that metals Zn, Cd, Pb, Ni, Mn, Cu, Cr, Fe, and V are sink primarily in organic and Fe–Mn oxyhydroxides phases. Co is mainly concentrated in the active phase. This is alarming because the element is enriched in Al Sayadin Lagoon which is still the main site of open fishing in Ismailia. Average concentration of the elements is mostly above the geochemical background and pristine values of the present study. There is a difference on the elemental composition of the sediment collected at the western lagoon (Al Sayadin Lagoon), junction, the shoreline shipyard workshops, and eastern beach of the lake. Depending upon the nature of elements and local pollution source, high concentration of Zn, Pb, and Cu are emitted by industrial wastewater flow (shoreline workshops), while sanitary and agricultural wastewater (El Bahtini and El Mahsama Drains) emit Co and Cd in Al Sayadin Lagoon. On the other hand, there is a marked decrease in potentially toxic heavy metal concentrations in the sediments at the most eastern side of the lake, probably due to the successive sediment dredging and improvements in water purification systems for navigation objective. These result show that El Temsah receives concentrations in anthropogenic metals that risk provoking more or less important disruptions, which are harmful and irreversible on the fauna and flora of this lake and on the whole ecobiological equilibrium.