Total and Available Heavy Metal Concentrations and Assessment of Soil Pollution Indices in Selected Soils of Zanjan

Soil is a hardly renewable natural resource. Although soil degradation, caused by either human activities and natural processes is a relatively slow procedure, but its effects are long lasting and most often, irreversible in the time scale of man's life. Among the most significant soil contaminants resulting from both natural and human sources, heavy metals are more important due to their long- term toxicity effects. For evaluating soil's enrichment rate by heavy metals, a wide and full study of soils background values, including total and available fractions of heavy metal contents should be done. Zanjan province has some great mines and concentrating industries of lead and zinc especially in Angoran, Mahneshan. Unfortunately produced waste materials of these industries spread over the adjacent areas. Investigations showed that accumulation of some heavy metals in vegetables and crops planted in this region had occurred. Therefore, performing some investigations in these polluted areas and assessing pollution rate and heavy metals distribution in arable lands had prime importance. Our goals were: 1) determining the total and available amounts of Cu, Pb, Zn and Cd in the soils of arable lands in polluted areas of Zanjan city, 2) producing the distribution map for the metals mentioned above and 3) calculating pollution indices in the soils.
The study area was in south west of Zanjan city. For soil sampling, a 1 Km by 1 Km grid defined in ArcGIS software on landuse layer and totally 144 points that placed on agricultural lands, due to our goals, were sampled. For sampling, in a 5m radius around the point we collected some subsamples from depth of 0 - 15 cm, and after mixing the subsamples, finally a 1Kg soil sample prepared and sent to the laboratory. Sampled soils were air dried and were passed through a 2mm sieve. Soils organic matter (OM) content and texture were determined by Walkely-Black and Bouyoucos hydrometer methods, respectively. Soils pH were determined by glass/calomel electrode in saturation paste, EC by EC-meter in saturation paste extract, and calcium carbonate equivalent (lime) by reverse titration method. Total and available amounts of Zn, Cu, Cd and Pb were extracted by Aqua- Regia method (wet oxidation by chloridric acid and nitric acid with the 3:1 ratio) and by DTPA extracting solution, respectively. After extracting and filtering liquid samples, metal concentrations were measured by atomic adsorption method using GBC avanta P. Statistical analysis by SPSS and indices calculation by Excel were performed, and distribution maps were prepared by Inverse Distance Weighting method in ArcGIS software. For evaluating pollution rate, Geoaccumulation index, Enrichment factor and Availability Ratio indices were calculated and interpreted.
The textures of soil samples were loam, clay loam and sandy loam. The OM contents of almost soils were less than 2 percent. Lime was less than 25 percent and acidity of soils were neutral to slightly alkaline. Soils salinity were less than 2 dS/m except a few samples. Accordingly, these soils were suitable for agriculture and there were no limitation due to evaluated properties. Median values for the total concentrations of Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn (extracted by Aqua Regia) were 0.5, 22.5, 14 and 82.3 mg/Kg of soils, respectively, and for available fraction (extracted by DTPA) were 0.1, 0.9, 1.6 and 3.2 mg/Kg of soils that were much lower than measured total values. According to 90th percentile of geoaccumulation index, at least 10 percent of samples had been polluted with Zn, Pb and Cd. Enrichment factor revealed no long term pollution. Availability ratios of Pb and Zn were relatively high, showing there exists unique and recent pollution source for them. All pollution indices showed positive correlations with OM content of soils (except for availability ratios of Cd, which had negative correlation). Therefore, OM content of soils were respect to control these indices. Geoaccumulation index of Zn, Cd and Pb, and availability ratios of Zn and Pb showed negative correlations with soil pH. Therefore, in some seasons of the year, their availabilities will increase in soil.
The results showed that Cu content in soils were not in the critical limit but Cd, Pb and Zn content in soils were greater than standard levels and reclamation procedures for remedy of these soils must be done. The high values of the heavy metals in available fraction inthe soils increased the risk of bioaccumulation in microbial and biotic tissues. In areas where there are high content of available form of heavy metals in soils, it could be an index of new contamination in soils by heavy metals. According to geoaccumulation index of Cd, Zn and Pb, there are some contaminated points around waste depositition areas near Zanjan city. These points are in the direction that wind could effectively transport the particles of wastes to urban area. Enrichment factor (EF) showed that at least there were a few points polluted by Cd, Zn and Cu, although EF values were generally low. The leaked wastes of Zinc and lead industries had been spread in deposited areas caused difficulties in determining background values for the selected metals.