Assessment of pollution in agricultural fields around corlu dumpsite through gis

Abstract

This study aims to reveal the effects of hazardous waste storage sites on environment over the analyses performed on soils and plants. To this end, the hazardous waste storage site (dump site) in Corlu town of Tekirdag province, which has the largest area and volume in the region, was chosen as the study area. Corlu is among the important industrial centers of the region (Thrace). In addition, present dump site collects the waste of surrounding districts, especially the industrially developed districts such as Cerkezkoy. Therefore, it may be expected that the dump site had excessive quantities of polluted materials and thus exerted greater threats of pollution on environment. Moreover, the preliminary surveys carried out indicated that existence of agricultural fields around the dumpsite led this area to be selected as the study area. In this sense, heavy metal, macro and micro element analyses were performed on 66 soil samples taken from 22 different points and on 14 plant samples taken from the points where agricultural activities (wheat farming) were practiced. Present findings were not able to reveal any significant correlations between the distance from the dump site and soil-plant heavy metal contents. However, there were significant positive correlations between the heavy metal and clay contents of the sampling sites. It can be stated that sloping nature of the research site reduced heavy metal concentrations of seepage water through the soil profile. It was believed that Corlu stream located at the furthest position to dump site at the end of slope served as a drainage canal for the sampling sites and heavy metals leached through soil profile by precipitations drained into Corlu stream.