Lead isotopic fingerprinting as a tracer to identify the pollution sources of heavy metals in the southeastern zone of Baiyin, China

Abstract

Baiyin (Gansu Province, China) is a heavily industrialized city with non-ferrous metal mining, ore dressing, and chemical production. The surrounding district has suffered from serious heavy metals (HMs) contamination over half a century. In this study, a Pb isotopic approach was adopted to trace the sources of HMs and explore the environmental behaviors of HMs in the area surrounding Baiyin. HMs concentrations in topsoil showed a clear decrease as the distance from the ore district increased, which suggested that atmospheric transportation is one of the main pathways of HMs dispersal. The Dongdagou irrigation area was an exception where contaminated water from Dongdagou had been used for a long time. The plots of 206Pb/207Pb vs. 208Pb/206Pb and 1/Pb vs. 206Pb/207Pb from the topsoil samples could be described in terms of a binary mixing model with the two average 206Pb/207Pb end-members being (1) the mining and smelting activities (1.1494) and (2) the soil background (1.1992). The relative anthropogenic contribution quickly decreased from 88.3% in the ore district to 30.6% in the Yellow River irrigation area. These results suggested that HMs in the Baiyin District were mainly contributed by anthropogenic mining and smelting activities. The isotope ratios of 206Pb/207Pb in the sediments maintained a consistent low level from the ore district to the Yellow River irrigation area, thereby suggesting that HMs from anthropogenic sources could also be transported over a long distance in the river systems. Moreover, the positive correlation between S content and HMs concentrations in topsoil and sediment confirmed that the HMs mainly originated from the sulfide deposits and smelters.