HEAVY METAL POLLUTION IN SEDIMENTS FROM THE THREE GORGE RESERVOIR AREA

Determination of 21 heavy metals in sediments from the Three GorgeReservoir area was conducted. The results of the ration matching analysis show thatthere is a good correlation among sediments in the Fulin-Badong reaches of theChangjiang River, but the low correlation in the Chongqing-Fulin reaches. This meansthat in the reaches the sedimentation is affected by municipal wastewater, andsimilarity among sediment samples is low, but the good similarity of samples from theFulin-Badong reaches because of light pollution. There seems to be in high correlationamong Mg, Sr, Ba, Fe, Co, Ni, Cr, Mn, Zn, Al, Ca, V, Y, Ti in sediments, thisindicates that the speciation of these elements in sediments is similar, the differencesof the correlation among As, Cd, Cu, Hg, Pb, P are considered that the speciation ofthe elements in sediments may be affected by pollution. Under conditions of limitinggrain size and constitute of sediments, values of mercury enrichment factor are 33-92, this confirms that sediments in the Three Gorge Reservoir Area reaches arepolluted by mercury. The analysis of Ef indicates that anthronogenic sources ofmercury are the high mercury background area of the southeast Sichuan province,China, Burning of coat with high content of mercury, mining and municipalwastewater.