Levels of Hazardous Trace Elements in Estuarine Sediments, Fish, Mussels and Wild Boar Collected From the Raša Bay Area (Croatia)

Abstract

A part of the Raša Bay (western Croatia) is an estuary that is fed by the sediment load from the Raša River. The local area had been affected by the former Raša coal industry. The aim of this study was to determine levels of hazardous trace elements (HTEs) in bottom estuarine sediments, fish and mussels collected from two sites downstream of the Raša River mouth, and a wild boar’s kidney donated by hunters. The pseudo-total concentrations of 21 HTEs in sediments were obtained by the X-ray fluorescence (XRF) technique. The results showed that sediment collected closest to the former Raša coal separation unit Štalije was enriched in V, Sr, Ni, Cu, and Pb. Concentrations of HTEs in flathead grey mullet, wild blue mussels, and wild boar were obtained by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The results showed that Pb, Cd and Hg in fish and wild mussels were not elevated compared to the Regulation levels of contaminants in food. Lead and Cd in the kidney of a wild boar exceeded the prescribed maximum values for food. This study warrants further geochemical investigations of the Raša Bay environment.

Potentially Toxic Elements in Water, Sediments and Fish from the Karstic River (Raša River, Croatia) Located in the Former Coal-Mining Area

“…Regardless of the differences between species and indications of rare spatial differences, the overall element levels in the muscle tissues of six fish species from the Raša River were comparable to or lower than the reported data for low-contaminated freshwater systems [ 9 , 19 , 27 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 74 , 76 , 80 , 81 , 82 , 83 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 , 88 , 89 , 90 , 91 , 92 , 93 , 94 , 95 , 96 , 97 , 98 , 99 , 100 , 101 , 102 , 103 , 104 , 105 , 106 , 107 , 108 , 109 , 110 , 111 , 112 , 113 , 114 , 115 , 116 ,…”

“…Istria, the largest Croatian peninsula, known for the unique beauty of both its shoreline and hinterland, natural attractions [ 1 ], diversity of habitats and great plant and animal biodiversity [ 2 , 3 ], attracts over 20 million tourists and visitors every year [ 4 ]. Although Istria’s landscape is usually perceived as pristine, with clean and unspoiled nature, until recently the entire region had been subjected to ecological changes [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ] driven by centuries-long coal mining and utilization [ 10 ]. In the Labin basin, which was the most important and biggest coal mining district in Istria, approximately 40 million tons of coal had been excavated by 1999, when coal mining and coal combustion activities ceased.…”

“…Considering the history of coal mining in Istria, the anthropogenic impact on the eastern part of the Raša River drainage area, encompassing five mining towns (Labin, Štrmac, Vinež, Krapan, Raša), the Krapan valley, the Krapan brook, the estuary (i.e., the lowest course of the Raša River) and Raša Bay, has been extensively studied addressing a range of contamination issues resulting from former mining activities. Several of these studies have investigated the occurrence and distribution of potentially toxic elements in natural spring waters, seawater, wastewater and coal-mine discharge [ 7 , 8 ], contaminated soils [ 8 , 13 ], vegetables [ 8 , 13 ], birds [ 13 ], wild boar [ 9 ], contaminated aquatic [ 13 , 14 ] and marine sediment [ 9 ], marine fish [ 9 ] and marine mussels [ 9 ]. Some also investigated the presence of volatile organic compounds (BTEX) in water samples [ 8 ] and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the soil [ 6 ] or evaluated potential radioactivity and cytotoxicity in abandoned coal mine discharge [ 7 ].…”

Selective recovery of calcium from estuarine sediments of Raša Bay

“…There is intense deposition of ne-grained clayey particles in the Raša river estuary which is typically derived from Eocene clastic ysch sediments (Fiket et al, 2020). Previous environmental studies were focused on the release of metals and metalloids from the estuarine sediments of Raša Bay (Fiket et al, 2020), the role of particulates in the transfer of trace metals from land to sea (Sondi et al, 1994), the in uence on structure of microbiota (Zhang et al, 2023), and assessment of the levels of hazardous trace elements in estuarine sediments and other aquatic animals belonging to the Raša Bay area (Ivošević et al, 2022).…”

Mitigation of Waste Transportation Costs in Taif Province, Saudi Arabia

“…Though many MSWM alternatives have indeed been applied to decrease health hazards, sanitary landfill remains the most commonly used MSWM technology. Runoff from landfills, on either hand, contaminates the soil and has an impact on surface and groundwater (Ivošević et al, 2022;Damijanić et al, 2022;Jakovljević et al, 2022). Pollutants can be avoided by developing waste disposal frameworks in such a way that the garbage is secluded from the entire environment (Voběrková et al, 2017;Jovanov et al, 2018;Hadidi et al, 2020).…”