Description
On Silesia, the most polluted Polish region, speciation of As, Sb and Cr in river ecosystems never has been studied. The project will allow gaining knowledge about redox and speciation changes of As, Cr and Sb ionic forms in selected river ecosystems of Upper Silesia. The project is intended to be a beginning of a long term national plan for water remediation. It provides the local government with the data needed for sustainable management of contaminated rivers. Concrete project targets includes develop methodologies for the determination of ionic forms of As,Sb and Cr in waters and sediments using of HPLC-ICP-MS technique and utilization of these methodologies in the assessment of selected rivers. Dissemination of the results will take place through publications in international scientific journals and participation in conferences. Expected beneficiaries are Environmental Protection Agencies and the Scientific Community.
Summary of project results
The oxidised arsenic form dominated in Upper Silesian river waters. Large As(lll) amounts and MMA, DMA, and AsB (to a lower extent) were also present. Water research for the antimony species demonstrated that the oxidised antimony form dominated in investigated rivers. Among the analysed rivers, only Biała Przemsza water met the Polish legal requirements for antimony. Bytomka, Kłodnica and Rawa were similar in terms of the maximum and mean Cr(lll) and Cr(VI) contents. Taking into account chromium contents in water, the investigated rivers met the requirements for water in Classes I and II for surface water. The highest Cr(VI) concentration was found for the Rawa water. The sequential chemical extraction demonstrated that arsenic and chromium are demobilised in Biała Przemsza bottom sediments, whereas the antimony content in the ion-exchange fraction demonstrated seasonal variability. Arsenic and chromium found in Bytomka, Rawa and Kłodnica bottom sediments were mainly bound with the organic-sulphide and oxide fractions. The elements were bound to the ion-exchange fraction to a much lower extent. Such findings show that the discussed elements were demobilised in the bottom sediment. Silesian rivers (Kłodnica, Bytomka and Rawa) are highly polluted with chromium, arsenic and antimony. Both waters and bottom sediments were most polluted at the sampling points located at the Upper Silesian agglomeration centre. Examined rivers were highly polluted in comparison with other Polish rivers. The project is intended as the beginning of a long-term national plan for water reclamation. It provided the local government with data needed for sustainable management of polluted rivers. It also provided a personal gain in Dr Jabłońska-Czapla competencies and expertise. The concrete project targets included developing methodologies for determining arsenic, antimony and chromium ionic forms in waters and sediments with HPLC-ICP-MS technique and utilization of these methodologies in the assessment of selected Upper Silesian rivers. Result dissemination took place through publications in national and international scientific journals and participation in many conferences. Expected project beneficiaries are particularly various Environmental Protection Agencies and the Scientific Community working on environmental analysis problems.
Summary of bilateral results