Heavy Metals Pollution Assessment in Soil of Al-Zubair area, Southern Iraq

Abstract

Fourteen soil samples were collected from different stations in Al-Zubair City. The inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was applied for determinations of (Pb, Zn, Ni, Cd, Co, Fe, Cu, Mn, Cr, and As) to assess the level of pollution in soil. The grain size analyses indicate that soil of silty sand type with low content of clay, the acidity of soil was acidic to slightly alkaline in most stations and have low to moderate content of total organic carbon (TOC) and salts (E.C). The mean concentration of heavy metals followed the order: of Fe>Mn>Zn>Cr>Ni>Pb>Cu>As>Co>Cd. Based on Igeo and PI values, the results obtained high pollution levels for both Cd and Zn, especially in Kut Al-Markaz, Al-Faraha, and Al-Thoahrat stations respectively, whereas IPI indicates low to moderate levels. On the other hand, EF of heavy metals was in decreasing order: EFCo>EFCd>EFAs>EFPb>EFZn>EFNi>EFCu>EFCr>EFMn. Generally, the pollution of Al-Zubair soil was attributed to anthropogenic sources like the industrial emission of the Al-Shuaiba oil Refinery, oil exploration processes, vehicle emissions in the center of the city as well as the waste of petrochemical company nearby Al-Zubair city