Heavy Metals in Organisms and Sediments from the Discharge Zone of the Submarine Sewage Outfall of Havana City, Cuba

摘要

A submarine sewage outfall is located off Chivo Beach, 1 km north-east of Havana Bay. This outfall discharges 168,000 m~3 day~(-1) of wastewaters from Havana, the capital city of Cuba. The effluent constitutes untreated urban wastewater from approximately 600,000 inhabitants from the city, mixed with industrial wastewater. Studies by Gonzalez and Brugmann (1991) demonstrated that this outfall represents the main point source of heavy metals (mainly Cu, Pb and Zn) in the Havana City region. However, the affected area does not exceed a radius of 2 km because the conditions of the outfall zone favour the dilution of the pollutants, due to their rapid exchange with the open sea (Gonzalez and Torres, 1990).