Environmental Contamination Assessment of the Surroundings of the ex-Šibenik's Ferro-manganese Smelter, Croatia

Abstract

The objective of this study was chemical and radiological characterization of soil samples affected by the dust emission and slag dumping from ferro-manganese smelter as well as uptake of metals by vegetation growing on that soil. Iron was the main component of metallurgical slag deposited near the smelter. Slag material was highly enriched in Zn, Cr, Cu, Co, and Pb. V and Cr were enriched in the soil taken near the smelter approximately by a factor of two, Pb and Cu were increased fivefold whereas the mean content of Mn was about 130 times higher than the levels in background soil samples. Activities of agricultural soil samples were typical for the soil developed on late Cretaceous carbonate surface. 40K, 232Th, and 137Cs showed somewhat lower activities in background soil compared to the soil taken near the smelter while the opposite was found for 226Ra and 238U. Plot of factor 1 against factor 2, obtained by Principal component analysis, showed perfect separation of the samples taken in the vicinity of the smelter, slag material, and normal background agricultural soil. Perfect correlation (Canonical R =0.992) was obtained between chemical composition of soil and vegetation samples taken from the same spots. The content of Mn was approximately 36 times higher in vegetation taken from the vicinity of the smelter compared to the background values.

Heavy metal contamination along a soil transect in the vicinity of the iron smelter of Kremikovtzi (Bulgaria)

“…due to leaching) should decrease it. Using rubidium (Rb) as the reference element and subsoil samples as reference material, Orescanin et al (2004) found that enrichment factors of contaminant elements were high in the vicinity of a ferromanganese smelter and much lower further away. Similar results were obtained by García et al (2004) using Al as the reference element.…”

“…Depending on the types of ores or scrap metals processed, also iron smelters can lead to extensive contamination of surrounding soils with toxic trace elements (Garmash, 1985;Zanini et al, 1992;Orescanin et al, 2004). Usually, however, trace metal emissions will be lesser from ferrous than from non-ferrous metallurgical plants.…”

Seasonal variations in the concentrations of selected heavy metals and radionuclides in Sava River sediments upstream and downstream of NPP Krsko

“…The concentrations of Cr, Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn, Co and Pb in bulk samples were determined by the energy dispersive Xray fluorescence (EDXRF) method [2]. Approximately 2 g of the powdered sample was pressed into a pellet (thick target) and irradiated for 7000 s. All targets were analyzed by EDXRF.…”

Source Apportionment and Model Applicability of Heavy Metal Pollution in Farmland Soil Based on Three Receptor Models

“…In the past few decades, due to lack of environmental protection technology to address the dust and waste produced in the iron and steel smelting process, the Cu content in the surrounding soil was 5 times higher than background value (Orescanin et al, 2004). The study of heavy metal content in soil near a steel plant in Serbia showed that concentrations of Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn were higher than reported in European soils and higher than world average (Dragović et al, 2014).…”