Abstract
Traditionally, the Guadiamar River (Seville, Southwest Spain) has received pollution from two different sources, in its upper section, from a pyrite exploitation (Los Frailes mine) and, in its lower section, from untreated urban and industrial wastes and from intensive agricultural activities. In 1998, the accidental spillage of about 6 million m3 of acid water and sludge from mine tailings to Guadiamar River worsened the pollution of an already contaminated area. The main polluting agents of the spillage were heavy metals. The total concentration of a metal provides scarce information about the effects on environmental processes or about the toxicity of the sediment samples. A more sophisticated fractionation of the sediment samples based on a species distribution can help to understand the behaviour and fate of the metals. This article describes a distribution study of the metals Al, Cd, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb and Zn by fractionation analysis of sediments from eleven sample sites alongside the Guadiamar Riverbed. The samples were collected in summer 2002, four years after the spillage and after the area had been cleaned. Sequential extraction analysis resulted in the definition of four fraction categories: exchangeable metal (the most available fraction), reducible metal (bound to hydrous oxides of Fe and Mn), oxidizable metal (bound to organic matter and sulphides) and a residual fraction (bound to minerals). Significant increases in the available fraction of several potentially toxic metal ions like Cd, Mn and Zn were found. The distribution pattern was variable along the River. At the site closest to the mineworks, the soluble forms of Cd, Mn and Zn were significantly more abundant that those downstream. Cu and Pb were present in the reducible fraction while Fe was present associated in the residual fraction.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aguilar, J., Dorronsoro, C., Fernández, E., Fernández, J., García, I., Martín, F., et al. (2004). Soil pollution by a pyrite mine spill in Spain: evolution in time. Environmental Pollution, 132, 395–401.
Allen, H. E., & Hansen, D. J. (1996). The importance of trace metal speciation to water quality criteria. Water Environment Research, 68, 42–54.
Alonso, E., Callejón, M., Jiménez, J. C., & Ternero, M. (2000). Determination of heavy metals in sewage sludge by microwave acid digestion and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry. Toxicological and Environmental Chemistry, 75, 207–214.
Alonso, E., Santos, A., Callejón, M., & Jiménez, J. C. (2004). Speciation as a screening tool for the determination of heavy metal surface water pollution in the Guadiamar River basin. Chemosphere, 56, 561–570.
Álvarez, M. B., Garrido, M., Lista, A. G., & Fernández Band, B. S. (2008). Three-way multivariate analysis of metal fractionation results from sediment samples obtained by different sequential extraction procedures and ICP-OES. Analytica Chimica Acta, 620, 34–43.
APHA. (1998). Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater (20th ed.). Washington DC: American Public Health Association.
Arribas, C., Guarnizo, P., Saldaña, T., Fernández-Delgado, C. (2002). Intervenciones humanas en el cauce principal del río Guadiamar y estado de conservación de su vegetación riparia. III Congreso Ibérico sobre gestión y planificación de aguas. La directiva marco del agua: realidades y futuro, Seville, Spain, 355-359.
Cabrera, F., Toca, C. G., Díaz, E., & Arambarri, P. (1984). Acid mine water and agricultural pollution in a River skirting the Doñana National Park (Guadiamar River, south west Spain). Water Research, 18, 1469–1482.
Cabrera, F., Soldevilla, M., Cordón, R., Arambarri, P. (1987). Heavy metal pollution in the Guadiamar River and the Guadalquivir estuary (South West Spain), In: M. Herman, D. Kotzias, H. Parlar (Eds.), 3rd international congress on environmental pollution and its impacts on life in the Mediterranean region, Istanbul, 16, (pp. 463-468)
Cabrera, F., Ariza, J., Madejón, P., Madejón, E., & Murillo, J. M. (2008). Mercury and other trace elements in soils affected by the mine tailing spill in Aznalcóllar (SW Spain). Science of the Total Environment, 390, 311–322.
Clemente, R., Walker, D. J., & Bernal, P. (2005). Uptake of heavy metals and As by Brassica juncea grown in a contaminated soil in Aznalcóllar (Spain): the effect of soil amendments. Environmental Pollution, 138, 46–58.
Deaver, E., & Rodgers, H. (1996). Measuring bioavailable copper using anodic stripping voltammetry. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 15, 1925–1930.
Fuchs, S., Haritopoulou, T., Schäfer, M., & Wilhelmi, M. (1997). Heavy metals in freshwater ecosystems introduced by urban rainwater runoff - Monitoring of suspended solids, river sediments and biofilms. Water Science and Technology, 36, 277–282.
González, M. J., Fernández, M., & Hernández, L. M. (1990). Influence of acid mine water in distribution of heavy metals in soils of Doñana National Park. Application of multivariate analysis. Environmental Technology, 11, 1027–1038.
Kraus, U., & Wiegand, J. (2006). Long-term effects of the Aznalcóllar mine spill—heavy metal content and mobility in soils and sediments of the Guadiamar River valley (SW Spain). Science of the Total Environment, 367, 855–871.
Leoni, L., & Sartori, F. (1997). Heavy metal and arsenic distributions in sediments of the Elba-Argentario basin, southern Tuscany, Italy. Environmental Geology, 32, 83–92.
Li, Y. L., Hall, K., Yuan, Y., Mattu, G., McCallun, D., & Chen, M. (2009). Mobility and bioavailability of trace metals in the water-sediment system of the highly urbanized brunette watershed. Water, Air, and Soil Pollution, 197, 249–266.
Meguellati, M., Robbe, D., Marchandise, P., & Astruc, M. (1983). Proceeding of the International Conference on heavy metals in the environment (pp. 1090–1093). Edinburgh: Heidelberg CEP consultants Ltd.
Mota, A. M., & Simões, M. L. (1996). Direct methods of speciation of heavy metals in natural waters. In S. Caroli (Ed.), Element Speciation in Bioinorganic Chemistry (vol. 135, pp. 21–26). New York: Wiley.
Riba, I., Blasco, J., Jiménez-Tenorio, N., & Delvalls, T. A. (2005). Heavy metal bioavailability and effects: I. Bioaccumulation caused by mining activities in the Gulf of Cádiz (SW, Spain). Chemosphere, 58, 659–669.
Riba, I., DelValls, T. A., Reynoldson, T. B., & Milani, D. (2006). Sediment quality in Rio Guadiamar (SW, Spain) after a tailing dam collapse: Contamination, toxicity and bioavailability. Environmental International, 32, 891–900.
Rico, M. C., Hernández, L. M., & González, M. J. (1987). Organochlorine and metal pollution in aquatic organisms in the Doñana National Park during the period 1983–1996. Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, 6, 1076–1083.
Santos, A., Alonso, E., Callejón, M., & Jiménez, J. C. (2002). Distribution of Zn, Cd, Pb and Cu metals in groundwater of the Guadiamar River Basin. Water, Air, and Soil Pollution, 134, 275–286.
Solís, G. J., Alonso, E., & Riesco, P. (2002). Distribution of metal extractable fractions during anaerobic sludge treatment in Southern Spain WWTPS. Water, Air, and Soil Pollution, 140, 139–156.
Ure, A., Quevauviller, P., Muntau, H., Griepink, B. (1993). Commission of the European Communities—BCR Information, EUR 14763 EN.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Santos, A., Santos, J.L., Aparicio, I. et al. Fractionation and Distribution of Metals in Guadiamar River Sediments (SW Spain). Water Air Soil Pollut 207, 103–113 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-009-0122-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-009-0122-9