NORMALISATION METHOD FOR EVALUATION OF METAL CONTAMINATION OF SOIL

József PROKISCH, Ildikó SZEGVÁRI, Éva SZÉLES, Béla KOVÁCS, Zoltán GYŐRI

University of DebrecenDepartment of Food Science and Quality Assurance4032 Debrecen Böszörményi út 138.E-mail: jprokisch@agr.unideb.hu

NORMALISATION METHOD: a method for calculation of geogenic and anthropogenic origin

of metals

Environmental Geochemistry And Health 2000, 22(4), pp 317-323Yttrium normalisation: A new tool for detection of chromium contamination in soil samplesProkisch-J Kovacs-B Palencsar-AJ Szegvari-I Gyori-Z

The measurement of chromium and yttrium concentration could give a chance to detect 5-10 times less chromium contamination in soil by using the yttrium normalisation method. The principle of the method is the following: elements such as chromium and yttrium exist naturally in the soil in a strongly bonded form. Therefore, in a noncontaminated area there should be a close correlation between the yttrium and chromium concentrations. If the measured Cr concentration in a sample is not on the Cr-Y trend line then the distance of plotted point from the line indicates the amount of anthropogenic chromium. Anthropogenic chromium can be detected only in the case when the contamination does not contain yttrium. This theory was tested in an agricultural-toxicological field experiment where Cr(VI) was added to the soil. Applying the yttrium normalisation method a much smaller anthropogenic effect was detected than by other evaluation methods.

NORMALISATION METHOD: a method for calculation of geogenic and anthropogenic origin

of metals

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Yttrium [mg/kg]

Chr

omiu

m [

mg/

kg]

control

Cr(VI) treated

antropogenic

geogenic

y = 0,001257x + 1,717102

R2 = 0,851122

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

0 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 60000 70000

Aluminium concentration [mg/kg]

Chr

omiu

m c

once

ntra

tion

[m

g/k

g]

Samples from the Soil Information and Monitoring System (TIM)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Time passed since 5 a.m. 11th March 2000 (hours)

mg/

l

CuPbZn

During the year 2000. two significant pollution waves came from Romanian mines to Hungary and went along the Tisza river causing serious damages to the ecosystem of the river. The first one, cyanide pollution, at the end of January had instantaneous effect on the living system, the second one, heavy metal pollution in March resulted in a long term effect. The heavy metal pollution that arrived with floods, had two results. On one hand, increased water speed decreased the grade of sedimentation in the river bed, and on the other hand, river flooding introduced contaminated water and sediment to the floodplain. After the withdrawal of the flood, a few centimetres of grey sediment remained in the floodplain. Subsequent floods in 2000 and 2001 resuspended and diluted the contaminated sediment on the floodplain. Lead, zinc and cadmium deposition on the floodplain were detected and proven but there was no evidence on the chromium contamination earlier.

TISZA RIVER CONTAMINATION

The horizontal samples were taken within a 50 m radius circle in the direction of four points of the compass at distances of 0, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 m at each site. The surface samples were collected from the 0-15 cm layer of soil.

Zn

1 5 9 13 17 21 25

S1

S4

S7

S10

S13

S16

S19

S22

S25552-570

534-552

516-534

498-516

480-498

462-480

444-462

426-444

408-426

390-408

372-390

354-372

336-354

Cd

1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25

S1

S4

S7

S10

S13

S16

S19

S22

S25 3,9-4,03,7-3,93,6-3,73,5-3,63,3-3,53,2-3,33,1-3,22,9-3,12,8-2,92,7-2,82,5-2,72,4-2,52,3-2,42,1-2,32,0-2,1

S

1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25

S1

S3

S5

S7

S9

S11

S13

S15

S17

S19

S21

S23

S25 1371-1438

1304-1371

1237-1304

1170-1237

1103-1170

1036-1103

969-1036

902-969

835-902

768-835

701-768

634-701

567-634

500-567

Pb

1 4 7

10

13

16

19

22

25

S1

S3

S5

S7

S9

S11

S13

S15

S17

S19

S21

S23

S25182-190174-182166-174158-166150-158142-150134-142126-134118-126110-118102-11094-10286-9478-8670-78

y = 0,001346xR2 = 0,948

15

25

35

45

55

65

75

10000 20000 30000 40000

Al [mgkg]

Cr

[mg/

kg]

TIM data

L1S1

L1S2

L1S4

L2S1

L2S2

L2S3

y = 0,001346xR2 = 0,948

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

0 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000

Al [mgkg]

Cr

[mg/

kg]

TIM data

L1S3 (control)

L2S4 (control)

Samples from control and floodplain of Tisza River comparing to the TIM samples

Comparing the traditional and the normalisation method for the evaluation of chromium contamination of the floodplain

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Sampling site

"Tot

al"c

hrom

ium

[m

g/kg

]

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

Sampling site

Ant

ropo

geni

c ch

rom

ium

[m

g/kg

]

Conclusions:

1. Normalisation method is an excellent tool for evaluation of metal contamination of soil

2. Geogenic and anthropogenic origin of metals can be separated

3. Contaminations can be detect much earlier

4. Good for Cr, Ni, Cu worth to try!