Investigation of Polluted Zones by Lead in North West of Iran

Abstract

National project of Important Heavy Metals Identification of Iran (IHMI), following the UNDP and supported by Department of Environment of Iran (DOE), has been completed by Modares Environmental Research Center (MERC). Due to this project the pollution potential sources was investigated by overall distribution maps of any parameters that may cause the lead pollution. Then the sampling points was determined by some geo-statistical analysis and the sampling process was done according to standard methods of sampling, preserving, transferring to lab, measuring and analyzing etc through the 3 months in three phases of materials (effluent and discharges, solid waste, water, soil and sediment samples from natural sources like river etc.). After gathering the final results, overlaying the potential sources and polluted positions (according to violation of national and international standards of sampled points) by Geographic Information Systems (GIS) led the research to closing to the pollutant sources in north west provinces (Eastern Azerbaijan, Western Azerbaijan, Ardabil and Zanjan). The synthetic and natural pollution sources observed were 17 and 20 respectively. Abir River, Niroo Gostar Taban Industrial Complex and Copper Industries were the most important pollution sources in material phases of Natural, effluent and solid waste respectively. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 7Article available at

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“…About 96 % of the urban population of Iran is connected to public water supplies; however, only 16 % are connected to adequate sewage treatment facilities (see Charkhabi et al 2005, Afkhami et al 2007). There are also significant problems caused by insufficient treatment of industrial wastewaters leading to serious impacts of heavy metals and other toxic compounds (e.g., Gheshlagh et al 2013, Khodadadi et al 2013, Mollazadeh et al 2013, Majnoni et al 2015) which affect, beside aquatic ecosystems, also human health (e.g., Karrari et al 2012). Moreover, the absence of real regulations of water abstraction from rivers and lakes and obligatory minimal flows from impoundments seriously impacts hydrology of streams and their ecosystem functioning.…”