Heavy metals in the gold mine soil of the upstream area of a metropolitan drinking water source

Abstract

Pinggu District is adjacent to the county of Miyun, which contains the largest drinking water source of Beijing (Miyun Reservoir). The Wanzhuang gold field and tailing deposits are located in Pinggu, threatening Beijing's drinking water security. In this study, soil samples were collected from the surface of the mining area and the tailings piles and analyzed for physical and chemical properties, as well as heavy metal contents and particle size fraction to study the relationship between degree of pollution degree and particle size. Most metal concentrations in the gold mine soil samples exceeded the background levels in Beijing. The spatial distribution of As, Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn was the same, while that of Cr and Ni was relatively similar. Trace element concentrations increased in larger particles, decreased in the 50-74 μm size fraction, and were lowest in the <2 μm size fraction. Multivariate analysis showed that Cu, Cd, Zn, and Pb originated from anthropogenic sources, while Cr, Ni, and Sc were of natural origin. The geo-accumulation index indicated serious Pb, As, and Cd pollution, but moderate to no Ni, Cr, and Hg pollution. The Tucker 3 model revealed three factors for particle fractions, metals, and samples. There were two factors in model A and three factors for both the metals and samples (models B and C, respectively). The potential ecological risk index shows that most of the study areas have very high potential ecological risk, a small portion has high potential ecological risk, and only a few sampling points on the perimeter have moderate ecological risk, with higher risk closer to the mining area.

Occurrence and Health-Risk Assessment of Trace Metals in Raw and Boiled Drinking Water from Rural Areas of China

“…At present, there is an increasing trend that fresh water is under immense stress due to rapid population growth, urbanization and unsustainable consumption of water in industry and agriculture [1][2][3][4][5]. In developing countries, the problem is further aggravated due to the lack of proper management, unavailability of professionals and financial constraints [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13].…”

Pollution Assessment of Potentially Toxic Elements (PTEs) in Soils around the Yanzhuang Gold Mine Tailings Pond, Pinggu County, Beijing, China

“…In order to determine the status and extent of PTEs in soil, a large number of standard indicators, including the Nemerow composite index, geological accumulation index, enrichment factor and potential ecological risk index, need to be calculated [ 26 , 36 , 37 , 38 ]. However, among these methods, the potential ecological risk index (PERI) method has been widely used by many scholars to quantitatively assess the negative environmental impact and comprehensive potential ecological risk caused by toxic elements [ 26 ]. The core of potential risk index evaluation is potential risk index (RI).…”

“…According to local villagers’ responses, in the rainy season, poultry and livestock sometimes died from drinking water near the tailings pond. The reason may be the migration and transformation of trace element pollutants, which bring potential risks to the environment [ 26 ]. In addition, the lack of scientific data on the distribution and development of pollutants has severely restricted the mitigation and remediation of water pollution in the region.…”

Anaerobic methane-oxidizing bacterial communities in sediments of a drinking reservoir, Beijing, China

“…, average annual precipitation is 660 mm, and about 70-80% of the precipitation occurs in summer (from June to September) (Ou & Wang 2008, Jiao et al 2015. With the rapid development of urbanization, Miyun Reservoir became an essential drinking source for more than two million people in Beijing (Ding et al 2016a), and nitrogen (NO 3 − -N) and phosphorus are the major nutrients to degrade the water quality of the reservoir (Wang et al 2001, Li et al 2016.…”