Tin

Abstract

Elements and their Compounds in the Environment. 2nd Edition. Edited by E. Merian, M. Anke, M. Ihnat, M. Stoeppler

Water Quality of Medium Size Watercourse Under Baseflow Conditions: The Case Study of River Sutla in Croatia

“…-Sn: in natural freshwaters inorganic Sn is present in the concentrations below 10 ng l -1 , but may reach 1 lg l -1 in certain polluted areas (Alzieu and Michel 1998); Sn concentrations measured in the river Sutla, downstream from the glass production facility, occasionally reached even 10-30 lg l -1 indicating considerable water contamination with this metal; however, if Sn is present in the water in the inorganic form it does not appear to accumulate in the living organisms due to its low solubility (Anger 2004); -Sb concentrations may measure only a few ng l -1 in unpolluted waters, whereas in industrial areas they may increase by a factor of thousand (Filella et al 2002); Sb concentrations of 3-12 lg l -1 measured at site 4 are comparable with industrially impacted rivers, such as the River Thames (0.15-38 lg l -1 ; ; considering that Sb is defined as a pollutant of priority interest by USEPA (1999a), it is also convenient to point out that maximal Sb concentrations measured in the river Sutla occasionally exceeded the USEPA (1999b) and EU (EU 1998) regulations for drinking waters (6 and 5 lg l -1 , respectively); -Mo concentration in drinking water varies in the range from \0.5 to [30 lg l -1 , whereas near industrial sources Mo concentrations may reach 200-400 lg l -1 in the surface water (Anke 2004a); since Mo is an essential component of the animal enzymes (Anke 2004a), and its concentrations in the river Sutla were always below 25 lg l -1 , observed increases of Mo concentrations at the specific sites could not be considered as troublesome; -As concentrations in unpolluted freshwaters commonly range from 1 to 10 lg l -1 (Mandal and Suzuki 2002); even the highest As concentrations measured in the river Sutla fell within this range; a Number of bacteria counted along the whole stretch of the river Krka in the autumn 2006 (Kapetanović et al 2009 and unpublished results) b Number of bacteria counted in the river Sutla in this study at the sampling sites 2-4, with the exception of HPC which refer only to the sampling site 3 c Number of bacteria counted in the river Sutla in this study at the remaining sampling sites d Number of bacteria counted in the river Sava at the sites affected by municipal sewage outlets of cities Zagreb and Velika Gorica in spring 2006 (Kapetanović et al 2009 and unpublished results) e Number of bacteria counted in the river Sava at several other sites without direct influence of point sources of pollution in spring 2006 (Kapetanović et al 2009 and unpublished results) -Rb: the highest Rb concentration measured in the river Sutla of 10 lg l -1 was comparable with mean Rb concentration in drinking water in Germany (11 lg l -1 ; Anke et al 1997); -Sr: maximal Sr concentration measured in our study (*0.50 mg l -1 ) was within the range reported for Canadian drinking water, which amounted to 0.19-3.20 mg l -1 (Skoryna 1981).…”

“…Considering that site 3 is situated downstream from the glass production facility, water contamination with certain metals was anticipated. Among listed metals, Sn, which showed the most pronounced increase, could be directly associated with the assumed source of pollution, because tin (IV) oxide has various uses in the glass industry (Anger 2004). The remaining metals are also commonly used in the glass production, e.g., Mo and Ni in the parts of the machinery (http 1; http 2: Jacob 2010), and Cd, Mn, and Cr as pigments (Dararutana and Sirikulrat 2007;Patrick McCray 1998; http 3).…”