The use of gadolinium and europium concentrations as contaminant tracers in the Nida River watershed in south-central Poland

Abstract

1 Jan Kochanowski Uni ver sity, Fac ulty of Math e mat ics and Nat u ral Sci ences, OEwiêtokrzyska 15G, 25-406 Kielce, Po land Migaszewski, Z.M., Ga³uszka, A., 2016. The use of gad o lin ium and eu ro pium con cen tra tions as con tam i nant trac ers in the Nida River wa ter shed in south-cen tral Po land. Geo log i cal Quar terly, 60 (1): 67-76, doi: 10.7306/gq.1241 This pa per pres ents the re sults of rare earth el e ment (REE) de ter mi na tions in the Nowiny wastewater treat ment plant (NWWTP) effluents and Nida River sys tem wa ters of the south east ern Kielce Re gion (south-cen tral Po land). Of the REE exam ined, gad o lin ium and eu ro pium turned out to be very use ful for pin point ing anthropogenic and geogenic sources. Anthropogenic gad o lin ium (Gd anth ), used as a con trast ing agent in mag netic res o nance im ag ing (MRI), is re leased from the NWWTP into the river drain age sys tem. This micropollutant is traced down stream over the dis tance of about 15 km. This river stretch is char ac ter ized by a strong pos i tive NASC-nor mal ized Gd anth anom aly with the Gd NASC /Gd NASC * ra tio above 1.1 (1.80-15.57) and the Gd anth in put vary ing from 44 to 94%. Two ad di tional pos i tive Gd anth anom a lies re corded in the rivers Bobrza and Nida point out to mix ing of effluents de rived from the NWWTP and other lo cal wastewater treat ment plants. In con trast, the Gd anth -un con tam i nated wa ters up stream, or down stream far away from the NWWTP dis play a dis tinct pos i tive NASC-nor mal ized Eu anom aly high lighted by a high Eu/Eu* ra tio in the range of 2.87 to 29.70. The lack of Gd anth anom aly upstream from the NWWTP also in di cates that there is no leak age of mu nic i pal sew age from the san i tary col lec tor sewer into the Silnica River. Thus Gd as a con tam i nant may be ef fec tively used as a tracer in sim i lar pol lu tion stud ies be cause it is rel atively sim ple and cost-ef fec tive to dis crim i nate be tween con tam i nant con cen tra tions and nor mal back ground con cen tra tions. Key words: rare earth el e ments, wastewater ef flu ent, Nida River drain age sys tem, anthropogenic gad o lin ium, geogenic euro pium.

Toxicological assessment of anthropogenic Gadolinium in seawater: Biochemical effects in mussels Mytilus galloprovincialis

“…Gadolinium chelates are widely used as contrasting agent in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) medical exams, due to the high magnetic moment of the paramagnetic Gd 3+ ion (e.g., Kümmerer and Helmers, 2000;Migaszewski and Gałuszka, 2016;Möller et al, 2003). Since some Gdbased contrast agents are stable complexes and are not metabolized, after application they are excreted from the human body through urine and released to waste water treatment plants (WWTPs) and from here to aquatic environments almost unchanged (Knappe et al, 2005;Migaszewski and Gałuszka, 2016;Möller et al, 2000). Kümmerer and Helmers (2000) reported that the level of Gd in urine may reach 350 mg/L daily after the patient medical exam and 7 mg/L after 39 days.…”

“…As a consequence of the increasingly exploitation and application of this element, Gd has been detected in a wide diversity of ecosystems (Migaszewski and Gałuszka, 2016;Rogowska et al, 2018) being recognized as an emergent micropollutant in aquatic environments (Rogowska et al, 2018). It has been reported Gd concentrations with natural background levels of 1-4 ng/L to values up to 200-1100 µg/L at…”

Rare earth and trace element signatures for assessing an impact of rock mining and processing on the environment: Wiśniówka case study, south-central Poland

“…The REEs have found an application in fingerprinting geologic and anthropogenic sources and in investigating geochemical processes that lead to fractionation of this element group in various environmental compartments, but particularly in surface and underground waters (e.g., Johannesson and Lyons 1995; Verplanck et al 2004; Bozau et al 2004; Gammons et al 2005; Knappe et al 2005; Leybourne and Johannesson 2008; Kulaksiz and Bau 2011; Migaszewski and Gałuszka 2015, 2016). In the surface water systems, the REE undergo fractionation between colloid/suspended matter and dissolved fractions (Ingri et al 2000).…”

Potential Anthropogenic Pollution of High-technology Metals with a Focus on Rare Earth Elements in Environmental Water

“…Thus, the anomaly of Eu due to naturally-occurring Eu were often observed in the samples from the upstream river water to estuarine water. 113…”