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HEAVY METALS CONTENTS IN AGRICULTURAL MONITORING SITES FROM THE COUNTIES AFFECTED BY HISTORICAL POLLUTION

Alexandrina MANEA

Abstract

The industrial activity of the last century has led to the severe environment pollution, especially in the areas where mining and smelting processes were involved. The impact of atmospheric emissions from the metallurgical plants was detected at great distances from the emission source. The main units for the processing of non-ferrous ores (in Romania) were located in Baia Mare (Maramures county ? MM), Copsa Mica (Sibiu county ? SB) and Zlatna (Alba county ? AB). In the Alba and Maramures counties there was and still exists mining activity. Knowledge of the natural concentrations of heavy metals in soils allows the assessment of the state of soil pollution and necessary measures to maintain soil fertility. This paper emphasised the contents of the heavy metals (total forms) in the agricultural grid (16x16 km) in the three counties (MM, SB and AB) which were affected by mining and smelter (Cu, Pb, Zn) plants. The investigated heavy metals were Pb, Cu, Zn, Cd, Mn, Cr, and Ni. The contents of Cd and Mn belong to the normal values range in all the three studied counties, while the contents of Cu, Pb Zn and Ni show large variation. The normal values and even the alert limit are exceeded in some sites. The mean, median and maximum values of Pb and Zn decreased in the order MM > AB > SB and the mean, median and maximum values of Cu decreased in the following order SB > AB > MM.Only in few sites, the high contents of heavy metals are due to the historicalpollution. The grid of 16x16 km is too large to highlight the local pollution.

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