Heavy metal pollution around the island city of Bombay, India. Part I: quantification of heavy metal pollution of aquatic sediments and recognition of environmental discriminants

The island city of Bombay is surrounded by Thane Creek in the east and the Ulhas River to the north. These two aquatic regimes act as receptacles of industrial and sewerage discharges from the city and also lithogenic fluxes from the adjacent basaltic terrain.

Two consecutive sets of pre-monsoon and post-monsoon samples of water, suspended solids and sediments were collected from nineteen stations along the intertidal zone of Thane Creek and from eleven stations along the Ulhas River course. Toxic heavy metals such as Fe, Mn, Ni, Co, Pb, Zn, Cu, Cr, Hg and Cd have been analysed in the samples and the degree of metal contamination has been brought out by comparison with local background as well as global standards. Thane Creek is relatively stagnant and dominated by a marine environment, while the Ulhas River is more dynamic and fluvio-estuarine in nature. The two environmental settings have been recognised in discriminant analysis of the heavy metal data.