Abstract
Sediments are normally the final pathway of both natural and anthropogenic components produced or derived from the environment. Sediment quality is a good indicator of pollution in the water column, where heavy metals and other organic pollutants tend to concentrate. Metals are introduced in aquatic systems as a result of the weathering of soils and rocks, from volcanic eruptions, and from a variety of human activities involving the mining, processing, or use of metals and/or substances that contain metal pollutants. Heavy metal concentration in the water column can be relatively low in some cases, but the concentrations in the sediment may be elevated. The presented work aimed to investigate the pollutant levels of some heavy metals (Fe, Mn, Al, Cu, Zn, As, Cd, Pb) in the water and sediments related to acid mine drainage (AMD) produced from an abandoned sulphide mine in Smolnik in Eastern Slovakia. A metal pollution index was used to compare the total content of metals at five sampling stations. The level of partitioning of the metals between the surface water and sediments in the area was calculated using Partition coefficients and the correlation coefficients between the metal pairs in both media were calculated by a Pearson coefficient.
Highlights
Environmental pollution is a significant problem in modern society
Surface sediment and water pollution is considered by many regulatory agencies to be one of the largest risks to the aquatic environment
The mean levels of the total concentration of metals in the surface water and bottom sediments of the Smolnik River over 11 years, as presented in Table 2, indicated Fe to be highest in both water and in sediment
Summary
Of the various kinds of pollution, the high contamination of aquatic systems with toxic heavy metals are of major concern since these elements are not biodegradable [1]. Heavy metals can be found in amounts several times above their natural background limits and pollute sediments and water next to industries, urban areas, and mining activities [2,3]. The main objective of this experimental work is to monitor and minimize the incidence of pollutant-oriented problems, and to provide water of sufficient quality to serve various purposes, such as drinking and irrigation [4]. A particular problem that impacts water and sediment quality-checking involves the complexity associated with analysing a large number of measured variables [5,6,7]
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