Uranium and Other Toxic Elements in Transboundary Waters Near Kamyshanovsky Deposit

Abstract

The paper is devoted to revealing the signs of negative impact from the territory of the Kamyshanovskoye deposit (Kyrgyzstan) on the level of contamination with uranium and other hazardous elements in transboundary water bodies, in the first place in the Shu River. For this, six control points along the irrigation canal at this territory were chosen together with 9 control points along the Shu river within the area. The elemental composition of water samples was studied employing MS-ICP and OES-ICP; concentration values of 22 elements were determined. The calculations were performed based on the obtained contents of toxic elements of the 1st and 2nd classes. Corresponding sanitary standards exceed the corresponding values by 1.5 – 6.7 times. At that, uranium makes the main contribution to the toxicity level of the studied water in the Shu River (46%) and in the canal (61%). The toxicity of the water canal is for ~3 times higher than that of the Shu River. The highest toxicity indicator was found in the water delivered to the agricultural irrigation at the territory of the Kamyshanovskoye deposit. This peculiarity and the obtained data may be of interest to the Ministry of Agriculture of the Kyrgyz Republic. The distribution of chemical elements in water along the irrigation canal and along the Shu River bed was studied. It is established that the canal water do not become contaminated with toxic elements while passing through the deposit lands. It was established in the 3 control points of the Shu River that an increase (by 28 – 130%) in the concentration of Ca, Ni, Li, Sr, U, Mg, Cr, Ba over their concentrations at the control points is higher upstream of this river. The results obtained convincingly indicate the presence of a serious influence of the Kamyshanovskoye deposit territory on the Shu River contamination with these elements. It is unlikely that such significant contamination is caused by the irrigation system discharge waters. One of the possible mechanisms of water contamination in the Shu River in its segment may be the entry of groundwater in contact with the ore body of this deposit.

Occurrence of Radionuclides and Hazardous Elements in the Transboundary River Basin Kyrgyzstan–Kazakhstan

“…Monitoring results provides a basis for evaluating the sustainable use of water in these basins of not only the main channels but also small transboundary rivers. In 2020-2021, authors published detailed studies of these transboundary rivers [24], as well as the Shu River, which flows through the territory of the Kamyshanskoye ore field [25]. The present work is a continuation of the previously published studies.…”

“…Figure 6. Water sampling scheme in the territory of the Kamyshanovskoye deposit [25].The distribution of the concentrations of the elements in the surface water at the sampling points located along the hydrochannel (CH) and the Shu River (SH) is shown in Figure7[25].…”