Abstract
The aim of this study was to assess Cu, Pb and Zn contamination in estuarine and urban sediments along Grand River North West (GRNW) during 2009-2013. Pb and Zn were significantly higher in the GRNW estuary though unleaded petrol was introduced since 2002. In fact, the potential sources of Cu, Pb and Zn in the urban estuarine sediments at GRNW were considered to arise from brakedust, road runoff and galvanized road furniture causing significant quantities to be trapped in coastal sediments with increasing vehicles. The mean concentration of Pb and Zn in the urban sediments along GRNW were however still below the limits of 700 and 2500 mg kg -1 quoted for contaminated sediments adopted from the draft standards (24% clay and 10% organic matter by weight) from Netherlands. The concentration of Cu, Pb and Zn were also greatest in the more urbanised lower reaches of the Grand River Bay. Pb remained significantly positively correlated with Zn indicating that the cycling of Pb and Zn were linked indicating a common traffic related source for Pb and Zn in the urban sediments in GRNW. Pb was significantly lower at 5% significance level upstream, downstream, estuary during summer 2013 compared to summer 2010 and could be due to floods which occurred in summer 2013. Cu was also significantly positively correlated with Pb confirming the traffic related common source (brakedust and vehicle emissions) in the urban sediments of GRNW.
Highlights
The first decade of the 21st century was 10 years of change for the environment, as new environment issues emerged and existing issues evolved
It has been observed in cities that there is lead, zinc and copper enrichment in both soil and sediment as a result of the increase in road runoff from fuel combustion as well as brake and tyre wear [1,2,3,4,5]
Trace metal pollution has become a matter of great concern and pose a contamination threat in both soil and surface sediments as the number of vehicles on the island in 2013 increased to more than 400 000 even though unleaded petrol was introduced in 2002
Summary
The first decade of the 21st century was 10 years of change for the environment, as new environment issues emerged and existing issues evolved. Trace metal pollution has become a matter of great concern and pose a contamination threat in both soil and surface sediments as the number of vehicles on the island in 2013 increased to more than 400 000 even though unleaded petrol was introduced in 2002. To support this point, potential high concentrations of dissolved metals lead and zinc were found along GRNW and its causes have been associated to urban and road runoff [7,8,9]. These trace metals enter estuaries both from feeder rivers and from direct discharges and tend to be trapped in estuaries and accumulate in sediments [21]
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