Abstract
The Port Harcourt Refinery Company situated at Okrika Mainland discharges its effluent into the Creeks surrounding this coastal land. The current study examined the presence of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons in groundwater sources of the coastal settlement. Ten replicate samples were collected from 10 boreholes in the settlement using sterilized amber glass bottles and fixed with concentrated H2SO4. They were later analyzed using Gas chromatography (GC). The Pearson product moment correlation coefficient (r) was used to determine the interactions of the PAHs detected while the One-way ANOVA was used to determine spatial variance equality in means of the PAHs components at P Fcrit(3.85563)]. A further structure detection revealed that the inequalities were contributed by all the PAH components, especially between BH 3 and BH 1, BH 4 and BH 2 and 5, as well as between BH 6 and BH 10. Very strong associations were observed between the PAH components at P < 0.01. BH 8 recorded the highest contamination level of the various PAHs due basically to its proximity to the refinery’s effluent discharge point (Ekerekana Creek) and channel. Hence the source of these pollutants could best be fingerprinted to the nearby Port Harcourt Refinery Company’s effluent discharges. These PAHs are not only ingested by drinking contaminated waters, but are further consumed when this water is used to prepare foods. This creates a great cause for public health concerns especially as several PAHs are known carcinogens. It is therefore, recommended that technologically advanced techniques of water treatment be developed in order to take care of the presence of PAHs in drinking water sources of the coastal dwellers.
Highlights
Crude oil refining processes generates a lot of solid, liquid, and gaseous wastes into the environment
The current study examined the presence of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons in groundwater sources of the coastal settlement
According to ATSDR [1], polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are generally formed during the incomplete combustion of coal, oil, gas, wood, or other organic substance such as tobacco and charbroiled meat, and have been reported to be the most abundant of the main hydrocarbons found in crude oil mixture [2,3]
Summary
Crude oil refining processes generates a lot of solid, liquid, and gaseous wastes into the environment. According to ATSDR [1], PAHs are generally formed during the incomplete combustion of coal, oil, gas, wood, or other organic substance such as tobacco and charbroiled meat, and have been reported to be the most abundant of the main hydrocarbons found in crude oil mixture [2,3]. They have been identified in soils at uncontrolled disposal sites, including wood preservation, oil wastes, and coal gasification sites [4]. Anthropogenic sources such as industrial production, transportation and waste incineration
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