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Time variation in transfer amounts of mercury by a river system near an artisanal and small-scale gold mining area in West Java, Indonesia

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Abstract

To evaluate the impact of mercury released into a river system by artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) activity in West Java, Indonesia, the temporal variations in elemental mercury, mercury ions, dissolved total mercury and particulate mercury concentrations in river water were observed in March 2015 (rainy season) and August 2015 (dry season) at a fixed observation point, and the migrated amount of mercury was estimated. Variations for other metals, total organic carbon (TOC), and total nitrogen (TN) contents were also measured. There have been few reports in which the amount of mercury transferred from ASGM activities is quantitatively estimated, and this study provides important data for evaluating the environmental impact of mercury released by ASGM activities. The concentration of filtered total mercury and the particulate mercury concentration observed in the dry season were 161 ± 167 μg L−1 and 142 ± 93 μg L−1, respectively, and these values were significantly higher than the values of 24.5 ± 23.9 μg L−1 and 53.7 ± 44 μg L−1 for filtered total mercury and particulate mercury, respectively, observed in the rainy season. On the other hand, the river flow in the rainy and dry seasons was 2.6 × 104 ± 5×103 m3 h−1 and 8.2 × 103 ± 8×102 m3 h−1, respectively, and an apparent increase in the amount of water in the rainy season was observed. The transfer amounts in the rainy and dry seasons obtained from these results were 6.2 × 102 ± 6.7 × 102 g h−1 and 1.6 × 103 ± 1.6 × 103 g h−1, respectively, for filtered total mercury and 1.3 × 103 ± 1.3 × 103 g h−1 and 1.1 × 103 ± 7×102 g h−1, respectively, for particulate mercury. The temporal variations in these values exhibited a wide range, indicating the effects of weather conditions and of the mining process.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Grants-in-Aid (Nos. 22404002 and 25257302) for Scientific Research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Kagoshima University, 1-21-35 Korimoto, Kagoshima, 890-0065, Japan

    Takashi Tomiyasu & Christine Baransano

  2. Environmental Safety Section, Kagoshima University, 1-21-35 Korimoto, Kagoshima, 890-0065, Japan

    Takashi Tomiyasu & Yuriko Kono Hamada

  3. Research Center for Biology, Indonesian Institute of Sciences, JL. Raya Jakarta, Bogor Km. 46 Cibinong, Bogor, 16911, Indonesia

    Nuril Hidayati & Joeni Setijo Rahajoe

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  1. Takashi Tomiyasu
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  2. Yuriko Kono Hamada
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  3. Christine Baransano
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  4. Nuril Hidayati
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  5. Joeni Setijo Rahajoe
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Correspondence to Takashi Tomiyasu.

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Fig. S1 Map showing the study area (PDF 99 kb)

Fig. S2 Temporal variations in river flow: (a) rainy season (Mar. 2015) and (b) dry season (Aug. 2015) (PDF 41 kb)

12665_2019_8727_MOESM3_ESM.pdf

Fig. S3 Temporal variations in (a) pH, (b) temperature, (c) redox potential, and (d) electrical conductivity (PDF 44 kb)

Fig. S4 The relation between FT-Hg and Hg0 (PDF 30 kb)

Fig S5 Temporal variations of (a) TC, (b) IC, (c) TOC, and (d) TN (PDF 43 kb)

Fig. S6 The correlations between TC, IC, TOC and TN (PDF 43 kb)

Fig. S7 Temporal variations of (a) Fˉ, (b) NO3ˉ, (c) NO2ˉ, (d) Clˉ, (e) SO42ˉ (PDF 47 kb)

12665_2019_8727_MOESM8_ESM.pdf

Fig. S8 The relationship between FT-Hg and Hg in SPM: (a) FT-Hg vs. Hg in SPM plot; (b) FT-Hg vs. FT-Hg/Hg-SPM plots (Langmuir model); and (c) ln(FT-Hg /g L-1) vs. ln(Hg-SPM /mg kg-1) plots (Freundlich model) (PDF 42 kb)

Supplementary material 9 (PDF 32 kb)

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Tomiyasu, T., Hamada, Y.K., Baransano, C. et al. Time variation in transfer amounts of mercury by a river system near an artisanal and small-scale gold mining area in West Java, Indonesia. Environ Earth Sci 78, 686 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-019-8727-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-019-8727-9

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