The Study of Heavy Metals on Sediment Quality of Kuala Perlis Coastal Area

A.A Ahmad Zubir,F.N Mohd Saad,F.A Dahalan,N Mohamed Noor,A.W Azhari

doi:10.1051/e3sconf/20183402018

Abstract

The contamination of heavy metals gives bad implications to the aquatic environment. Thus, a study was conducted to assess the sediment quality by using different contamination indices such as Enrichment Factor (EF), Geo-accumulation Index (Igeo), and Pollution Load Index (PLI). Each sediment sample was collected at the surface (0-15cm) at 5 locations based on the land use activity; jetty port (A), seaside restaurant (B), roadside area (C), power plant (D) and residential area (E). All samples were undergoes acid digestion and analyzed with AAS. Four elements identified from the sediment samples which are Cr, Cu, Pb and Zn were used to calculate the respective indices. Results show that, the highest EF value of Pb which categorized as very severe enrichment was at point E. Meanwhile minor enrichment was detected at point B for Cu while Cr and Zn at point A. Based on Igeovalue the sediment quality along Kuala Perlis was in the unpolluted-moderately polluted condition (class 1). As for PLI it shows that the sediment of the coastal area is unpolluted (PLI<1). Therefore, this study revealed that, the main contributor of heavy metals in this area is Pb while the sediment quality of Kuala Perlis was in minor pollution condition.

Highlights

The increasing of industrialization and urbanization activities in Kuala Perlis, more waste waters that containing various types of toxic contaminants such as heavy metals were release to the rivers, surface runoff and reach the coastal waters [1]
The results reveal that, the concentration of Cu, Cr, Pb and Zn contain in the sediment sample does not exceed the probable effect level, severe effect level, and toxic effect threshold of the sediment quality guidelines
This study has shown that the sediment of Kuala Perlis coastal area is currently contain with four elements which are copper (Cu), chromium (Cr), zinc (Zn) and lead (Pb)

Summary

Introduction

The increasing of industrialization and urbanization activities in Kuala Perlis, more waste waters that containing various types of toxic contaminants such as heavy metals were release to the rivers, surface runoff and reach the coastal waters [1]. The transportation of the toxic contaminants to the coastal water ways deposited in the marine sediment over the time exposure [2].The heavy metals contaminated the aquatic environment, through the bioaccumulation in the sediments toxicity of the metals that altered the environmental background conditions. This resulting the long term bad implications to the marine habitat and human health along the food chain in the ecosystem[3]. Pollution Load Index (PLI) is the nth root of the product of n contamination factors (CF) values and one of the indices to assess the pollution in the sediment [4]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion