Study of The Rate of Soil Pollution to Heavy Metals Cadmium, Lead and Copper in Oil Industries Land at West Karun Region, Khuzestan Province, Iran

Population growth leads to the expansion of industries and improper management of industries leads to land pollution and irreparable damage to nature and living organisms. Therefore, studying the role of industrial centers in environmental pollution, including soil, is one of the most important measures in the field of pollution control. The aim of this study was to evaluate the rate of surface soil contamination with heavy metals exposed to the oil industry.

In this study, to measure the rate of heavy metals, a total of 15 soil samples were taken from 5 stations with 3 replications and from depth of 0-30 cm. Heavy element measurements were performed by induction coupled plasma spectroscopy.

Based on the results the average amount of Cadmium, Lead and Copper in the soil were 2.40 ± 1, 8.89 ± 5.91 and 55.83 ± 52.88 mg / kg respectively.

The average values of Cadmium and Copper were higher and the average values of lead were lower than the global average. Also, due to the high degree of toxicity of Cadmium, the highest risk of soil contamination can be attributed to Cadmium. The measurement of pollution of each of the three elements and for five sampling stations showed that the soil of the oil region was more polluted than Cadmium than the other two elements and the oil industry was more effective in Cadmium pollution than other elements. By measurement and comparison, the rate of soil pollution indices in the sampled zones, it showed that, as expected, the soil of the processing areas and the well head zones had more severe pollution than other areas and adopted more strict environmental control measures are essential on these areas.