Abstract
The pollution of heavy metals in soil caused by exposed coal gangue and its prevention and control has become a hot issue restricting the green mining of coal in China. Nemerow integrated pollution index (NIPI), potential ecological risk index (RI) and human health risk assessment model were used to evaluate the pollution and risk of heavy metals (Cu, Cr, As, Pb) in the soil around the typical coal gangue hill in Fengfeng mining area of China. The results show that: firstly, the accumulation of coal gangue leads to the enrichment of four heavy metals in the surrounding shallow soil, and NIPI and RI were 1.0–4.4 and 21.63–91.28, respectively. The comprehensive pollution level of heavy metals in soil reached the warning line and above, and the potential ecological risk level reached slightly and above. When the horizontal distance exceeded 300 m, 300 m and 200 m, respectively, the influence of coal gangue hill on the heavy metal content in shallow soil, the comprehensive pollution level of heavy metals and the potential ecological risk level basically disappeared. In addition, based on the potential ecological risk assessment results and main risk factors, the ecological risk configuration of the study area was divided into five categories: “strong ecological risk + As,” “intermediate ecological risk + As + Cu,” “intermediate ecological risk + As + Cu or Pb,” “minor ecological risk + As + Cu” and “minor ecological risk + As + Cu or Pb.” The hazard index (HI) and total carcinogenic risk (TCR) of shallow soil polluted by heavy metals in the study area were 0.24–1.07 and 0.41 × 10−4–1.78 × 10−4, respectively, which posed non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks to children, but the risks were controllable. This study will help to take strategic measures to accurately control and repair the heavy metal pollution in the soil around the coal gangue hill and provide a scientific basis for solving the safe use of agricultural land and realizing the construction of ecological civilization.
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Acknowledgements
The paper has been supported by the key fund of Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Coal Green Development Geological Security (DZBZ2022Z-03) and the planned project of Hebei Academy of Sciences (19108). Thanks to Yanjie Zhang, an engineer from the Institute of Geographic Sciences, Hebei Academy of Sciences, for his support to relevant field research and indoor experiments.
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This work was supported by the key fund of Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Coal Green Development Geological Security (DZBZ2022Z-03) and the planned project of Hebei Academy of Sciences (19108).
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SS contributed to conceptualization, methodology and writing–review and editing; RP was involved in methodology, software drawing, data curation, writing—original draft, and experiment; YW contributed to investigation, software drawing and experiment; XC was involved in investigation and writing—review and editing; and RN and HR contributed to writing—review and editing. All the authors reviewed the manuscript.
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Song, S., Peng, R., Wang, Y. et al. Spatial distribution characteristics and risk assessment of soil heavy metal pollution around typical coal gangue hill located in Fengfeng Mining area. Environ Geochem Health 45, 7215–7236 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-023-01530-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-023-01530-x