Abstract
The present study highlights the occurrence and the temporal variations of physicochemical properties, and heavy metals in the sludge from sewage treatment plants (STPs) located in industrial (two sites) and non-industrial (one site) cities of Haryana, India. The sludge was acidic (5.59) to neutral (7.21) with a mean EC of 7.4 dS m−1. Prominent heavy metals present in the sewage sludge from industrial sites were Cd, Ni, and Cr with maximum values of 2.83, 1449.0, and 3918.5 mg kg−1, respectively. The contamination and enrichment factor better explained the buildup of Ni, Cr, and Cu in the sewage sludge from industrial sites. The pH, total carbon, phosphorus, and other water–soluble anions, viz. SO42−, Cl−, HCO3−, and PO43−, were the most important attributes of sludge controlling the binding and removal of the metals with particulate matters during the phase separation in STPs. These attributes explained about 90% of the variation in Cd, Ni, Cr, Cu, Mn, and Zn content of the sludge from different STPs. Sludge from the non-industrial site had a low potential ecological risk index of 74.0 compared to a very high-risk index of 2186.5 associated with the industrial sites. This study concludes that besides the concentration of the heavy metals, the enrichment factor coupled with geo-accumulation or ecological risk index can effectively categorize the sludge. However, these indices need to be linked with bioaccumulation, bioaccessibility, and biomass quality under different agroecologies for guiding the safer use of sewage sludge in agriculture.
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Acknowledgements
Authors are thankful to the Sh. Dinesh Meena, Mr. Raj Kumar, and Dr. Naresh K. Arora for help in the analysis of water and soil samples. The authors sincerely acknowledge the wholeheartedly support and participation of officials at selected sewage treatment plants in Haryana.
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This research was funded by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)–Central Soil Salinity Research Institute (CSSRI), Karnal as a part of the research project of ICAR-CSSRI (Code: NRMACSSRISIL201600100899).
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PS: Conceptualization, funding acquisition, data curation, formal analysis, investigation and methodology, and original draft; AKR and NB: Conceptualization, funding acquisition, data curation, and original draft; PC, SB, and GY: Conceptualization, formal analysis, investigation, and methodology, and original draft; RKY and PCS: Resources, review, and editing.
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Sundha, P., Basak, N., Rai, A.K. et al. Characterization and ecotoxicological risk assessment of sewage sludge from industrial and non-industrial cities. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 116567–116583 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21648-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21648-2