Some physico-chemical and Heavy metal levels in soils of waste dumpsites in Port Harcourt Municipality and Environs

Abstract

ABSTRACT:Various physico-chemical techniques were used to investigate the characteristics and heavy metal concentration of soils in some selected waste dumpsites in Port Harcourt. This is because the soils act as vehicles for the permeability of leachates into various levels of aquifers in the environment. The results show that the soils are moderately acidic with a mean pH value of 5.5 for the 1m subsoil and 5.8 for 30cm soil depth in the various dumpsites, while the total organic carbon (TOC) levels show that it was low with 3.41% and 2.90% for depths 30cm and 1m respectively. The cation exchange capacity (CEC) of the soils showed a range of 21.36 -28.79 meq/100g for a depth of 30cm and 20.94 -26.44meq/100g for a depth of 1m soil level across the waste dumpsites. The textural class of the soils was observed to be a mixture of sand, clay and loam in all the sites. Low sand fractions (>40%) was observed for almost all sites except for Elekahia and Eleme roads that had 64.7% and 56.4% respectively. The results of the heavy metal concentration in all the locations of the waste dumpsites were above permissible limits. In this study, the soil did not meet up the moisture requirement for a waste land filling and could therefore be prone to porosity, surface flooding and underground water pollution.

Assessment of Physicochemical Properties and Heavy Metals Contents in Selected Dumpsites in Afikpo, Afikpo North, Ebonyi State, Nigeria

“…Results obtained for Fe content in these dumpsites (Figure 1) compared favourably with those reported by others (Ogbonna et al, 2009;Uwah et al, 2009;Uba et al, 2008;Elaigwu et al, 2007) and are within the permissible range for agricultural lands.…”

Heavy Metal Concentrations around a Hospital Incinerator and a Municipal Dumpsite in Ibadan City, South-West Nigeria

“…The Pb levels in soil were similar to the amount reported by Ogbonna et al (2009) andYahayaet al (2009) but lower than the levels reported by Meneses et al (1999) and Schuhmacher et al (1997). The levels obtained in this work are high when compared to that reported by Nwajei et al (2007).…”

Pollution Status of Trace Metals in Waste Impacted Soils within Borokiri Town, Port Harcourt Metropolis, Rivers State, Nigeria

“…However, dumping of metal-containing waste products should be discouraged to forestall bioaccumulation, metal toxicity and its attendants' effects in the environment. Also, considering the shallowness of water table, nature of soil types in Port Harcourt municipality and the mobile nature of toxic metals in soil, dumping of non-biodegradable waste materials on soil should be avoided to prevent underground water and edible plants grown on soil from being polluted (Ogbonna et al, 2009). Results obtained for lead in this study showed a high relative standard deviation (RSD) of 14.53% indicating that most values obtained were far from the mean.…”

“…Thus, identification of pollution status of metals in underlying soils at waste dumpsites within the study area is an essential tool to avert metal toxicity and associated health implications. This research work can also forecast the quality of underground water in the area since metal like cadmium is highly mobile in soil and water table in the area is very shallow (Ciećko et al, 2004;Ogbonna et al, 2009). This work was undertaken to determine concentrations of trace metals at waste-impacted soils within Borokiri community in Port Harcourt.…”