Characteristics of trace elements in contaminated rivers and their environmental significance

Several rivers researched around Taihu Lake in Chinese eastern plain are distributed to the west of the lake. Pollutants of different types from tributaries and inlets flow directly into the main rivers and finally into the lake. They change trace elements of rivers fi＇om which we can analyze. Researches about trace elements are helpful for understanding the pollutant characteristics, industrial structure and agricultural cultivation in the area of network rivers in the plain of China. Samples of water column, suspended matter and sediment were collected fi＇om the west rivers of Taihu Lake, which represent three typical rivers. Observation in the field and the primary composition analysis showed the Caoqiao River was mainly contaminated by industrial wastewater, the Liangxi River was discharged by domestic sewage and the Dapu River was principally input by farmland runoff. REE concentrations and their normalized curves showed obvious characters for rivers discharged by different sewages. The contents of total REE in water column followed the order of the Caoqiao River, the Dapu River and the Liangxi River fi＇om high to low. TREEs in suspended matter and sediments follow the order of the Dapu River 〉 the Caoqiao River 〉 the Liangxi River. REE normalized curves （for Australia shale） suggested that significant diversities were presented in water column, suspended matter and sediments, i.e., heavy REE enrichment in water, middle REE enrichment in suspended matter, and smooth curves for sediments. But the heavy pollution resulted in several anomalous curves in the same rivers. Some element ratios were selected as indices for polluted rivers based on their geochemical properties and diversities between rivers. The results displayed the discriminative indices for water column, suspended matter and sediment. The effective indices were Pb/Fe, Cr/Fe, Ni/Fe, Pb/Ni, Zn/Ni for water column, Cu/Al, Cu/Fe, Zn/Fe, K/Ca, K/Na, Pb/Co, Zn/Co for suspend matter and Pb/Fe, K/Ca, Ca/Mg, Zn/Ni for sediment, respectively. In general, rivers mainly discharged by industrial sewage have high ratios of Pb/Ni, K/Ca, are enriched in the middle REE and have positive Gd anomaly. The domestic sewage flowing into rivers reveals high ratios of Zn/Ni, Pb/Fe, and is enriched in the heavy REE, and has the positive Eu anomaly. If runoff of farmland enters into the rivers, it will have high ratios of Ca/Mg, K/Na, high lanthanum, and show the smooth normalized curves of REE.

Characteristics of trace elements in contaminated rivers and their environmental significance