Current status of coastal sediments contamination in the former industrial area of Bagnoli-Coroglio (Naples, Italy)

Source Apportionment Assessment of Marine Sediment Contamination in a Post-Industrial Area (Bagnoli, Naples)

“…Heavy metals such as chromium, nickel and vanadium were found more concentrated near the Nisida northwestern coast and in offshore waters (Figure 8) and did not appear to be strongly influenced by the wave hydrodynamics of the outer gulf. These findings were coherent with the findings of other studies ( [4,6,58,59]) even though the measurements in this study derived mostly from drilling and did not include sediment cores. influenced by the wave hydrodynamics of the outer gulf.…”

“…This study confirms that a multivariate statistical analysis (PCA/FA) approach can be extremely effective in assessing the apportionment of contaminant sources, even in a site with a complex geological characteristic and a long historical industrial development. With respect to the previous studies (e.g., [3,4,6,7,18]) which used similar methods to investigate the sediments or biota ( [31,33,34]), this study considers a larger portion of the Gulf of Bagnoli, and it investigates the relationship of metals/PAHs with both the hydrodynamics of the Gulf and potential discharges/sources. Additionally, while studies in literature considered mostly the sum of total PAHs, in this study 18 PAH compounds are considered individually as their contamination pattern in the gulf.…”

“…Armiento et al [4] within the same ABBaCo framework had analyzed both drilling (i.e., top layer sediments or TL) and sediment cores and found that that TL samples were characterized by a lower contamination than sediment cores. It is important to note that the correlation patterns found in TL samples reflected what was found in studies that analyzed historical contamination patterns through sediment cores.…”

“…A total of 11 heavy metals (i.e., Al, As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Ni, Pb, V, and Zn) and 18 PAHs (i.e., naphthalene, anthracene, phenanthrene, acenaphthylene, acenaphthene, fluorene, fluoranthene, pyrene, benzo(a)anthracene, chrysene, benzo(b)fluoranthene, benzo(a)pyrene, benzo(k)fluoranthene, indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene, benzo(ghi)perylene, dibenz(ah)anthracene, benz(j)fluoranthene, benz(e)pyrene) indicated by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as important toxicological contaminants were considered. All the samples and the analytical determination derive from the series of studies conducted under the framework of the ABBaCo project [4,33]. Contaminants general statistics are reported in Table 1.…”

“…The impact of heavy industries was never completely remediated, however, and this negligence results in high concentrations of PAHs and trace metals in marine sediments [3]. Sediment contamination is still evident in the vicinity of the industrial sites but also widespread in neighboring areas due to re-suspension of sediments and to water currents [4][5][6][7]. Furthermore, sewage loss from wastewater treatment plants or accommodation facilities along the western Bagnoli coastline increased the magnitude of the marine environment contamination [8,9].…”