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Arsenic Addition to Soils from Airborne Coal Dust Originating at a Major Coal Shipping Terminal

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Abstract

Soil samples were collected from Norfolk, Virginia in order to examine the extent of particulate coal, and associated arsenic (As) deposition to local soils. The particulate coal originates from the adjacent coal shipping terminal at the Lambert’s Point Docks, which is the largest marine coal shipping terminal in the Northern Hemisphere. Particulate coal was separated from soil samples using heavy liquid (i.e., sodium polytungstate) extraction. Sand-sized coal separates isolated from the soil samples were subsequently digested using concentrated nitric and sulfuric acid, and analyzed for As by high-resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HR-ICP-MS). Selected total soil digests were also analyzed for As by HR-ICP-MS. Results indicate particulate coal ranges from less than 1% up to ∼20%, by weight, of the soil samples analyzed. Arsenic concentrations in sand-sized particulate coal extracted from these sediments range from undetectable levels (i.e., <3 ng/kg) up to 17.4 mg/kg, whereas total As concentrations in the soils range from 3 to 30.5 mg/kg. The data indicate that particulate coal originating at the Lambert’s Point Docks is an additional source of As to local soils, especially sites proximal to the shipping terminal. Although the particulate coal itself likely poses only minor health hazards (if any), the environmental consequences of As transported with the particulate coal is not known.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Drs. J. Sanders and J. Rule for reading an earlier version of this manuscript and providing important and helpful input for this project. We are also especially grateful to Drs. K. Stetzenbach and J. Cizdziel of the Harry Reid Center (HRC) for Environmental Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas for arranging and performing the arsenic analyses. We wish to thank N. McGinnis and J. Daniels, also at the HRC, for helping with the soil sample collection, and S. Haque and M. Vessely (The University of Texas at Arlington) for editorial assistance. The Department of Ocean, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences at Old Dominion University, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists provided funding for the project. We thank J. Quintans of The University of Texas at Arlington Office of University Publications for drafting the map. Finally, we express our gratitude to R.B. Finkelman and two anonymous reviewers whose comments greatly improved this manuscript.

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  1. Department of Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, 23529-0275, USA

    William J. Bounds

  2. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, 70118-5698, USA

    Karen H. Johannesson

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  1. William J. Bounds
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Correspondence to Karen H. Johannesson.

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Bounds, W.J., Johannesson, K.H. Arsenic Addition to Soils from Airborne Coal Dust Originating at a Major Coal Shipping Terminal. Water Air Soil Pollut 185, 195–207 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-007-9442-9

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