Comprehensive Pollution Analysis of Contaminated Sediment in an Urban River, China

Abstract

Abstract Sediment pollution has been one of the most serious water pollution problems in urban rivers, called the ‘autogenous pollution’, which has also caused critical ecological risk to river as well as surrounding environment. Therefore, quantitative analysis of sediment pollution is of great importance to come up with a treatment scheme. In this study, comprehensive pollution analysis of contaminants has been conducted for various vertical stratifications using 86 columnar samples with depth of 3∼4 m. Pollution assessments of organic matter, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, toxic substances and heavy metal elements were conducted. Then, the comprehensive pollution depths can be determined based on pollution assessment of each vertical layer, which shows that the maximum pollution depth can be up to 2.0 m, 3.0 m and 3.0 m for Reach A, Reach B and Reach C, respectively. The results has been used to determine the spatially changing thickness in environmental protection dredging in Maozhou River.