The study of lead and zinc concentration and their changes in surface sediments of zayanderood river

摘要

Zayanderood is the only permanent river in central iran and the main feeding source for regional aquifers that plays a key role in providing esfahan province with drinking water. Because of the importance of this river in terms of its various uses and the fact that it receives waste materials from heavy industries, such as esfahan steel company, mobarake steel complex, polyacril and the other chemical factories, power plants, oil refinery, and military industries, the basis of this study is an examination of the river for pollution with elements like pb and zn and geochemical studies on it. In order to study the motion changes of the potentially poisonous elements of lead and zinc and their effective factors in zayanderood river, sediment samples were taken from eleven (11) stations (up stream to down stream) and then examined using an ICP-OES. The results from the analysis of fine grain sediments (particles smaller than 63 microns) indicate a high concentration of lead and zinc in several sampling stations. The concentrations of zinc & lead have been 494.3ppm and 40.45 ppm respectively. The separation of human factors from natural ones was done by comparing lead & zinc concentrations at" Zaman khan " bridge station (as the reference sample) with those of the other sampling stations by obtaining the envichment coefficient. Taking into account the results and coefficients, obtained and comparing those with widely used international standards, it seems the two elements of lead and zinc have not natural sources in some of the stations.