Assessment Of Soil In Automobile Repair Site For Heavy Metal Pollution

This study investigated the impact of automobile repair activities on the concentration of heavy metals in soil.The investigation of the impact of anthropogenic activity on soil heavy metals concentration is important because heavy metals are potentially toxic and anthropogenic activity is a major source of their release and pollution in the environment.In this study, the concentrations of Copper(Cu), Manganese(Mn), Chromium(Cr), Zinc(Zn), Nickel(Ni), Lead(Pb), Cobalt(Co), Arsenic(As) and Iron(Fe) were assessed in soil samples collected at depths of 0-20 cm using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-OES) in Bureau Veriats laboratory, Vancouver, Canada.The result showed the following average concentration values for the metals: 132.5mg/kg for Cu, 7. 83mg/kg for As, 126.67mg/kg for Cr, 32.67mg/kg for Co, 1285.66mg/kg for Mn, 38.5mg/kg for Ni, 163mg/kg for Pb, 570.17mg/kg for Zn and 139033mg/kg for Fe.The Average concentration of Pb, Zn, Co, Cr and Cu exceeded their uncontaminated soil levels, FAO permissible limits for soil and their levels in the crust.The contamination factor (CF) values indicated that there is high Pb and Zn contamination of the soil while Igeo values showed that the soil is moderately to strongly contaminated with Pb and Zn while Cu and As caused moderate contamination.The combined effect of all the metals, which was assessed, using pollution load index (PLI), resulted in the automobile repair site soil being highly polluted.