Heavy Metals Contamination and its Sources in the Luoyuan Bay

Abstract

The distribution and the source of heavy metals Cu, Pb, As, Zn, Cd in seawater and the surrounding land-based sources of Luoyuan Bay were studied in July 2009. The results showed that the concentrations of heavy metals varied from 2.4 to 52.4μg/L for Zn, from 1.41 to 2.98μg/L for As, from 0.35 to 1.70μg/L for Pb, from 0.04 to 1.0μg/L for Cd, from 0.03 to 1.18μg/L for Cu. Although the heavy metals pollution levels in seawater in Luoyuan Bay were not beyond the second class of sea water quality standard of China, concentration of some metals increased in recent years. The concentration of Cd and Zn was both higher in north and southeast of the bay, which was affected by the steel plant and the nickel plant in north and the power plant in southeast individually. Concentrations of Cu and Pb were higher in north and the mouth of the Bay, affected by the smelter plants in northern and open sea individually. The concentration of As changed little and the lowest concentration appeared in the central Bay Area, which was mainly from the smelter and the surrounding land-based sources. The metal pollution comes from the smelt plants showed be paid more attentions, following the rapid development of industry.