Survey of the effect of dust storms on the water quality of Seimare dam

Abstract

Introduction: Lakes and surface waters are sensitive areas that have potential to pollute with different pollutant sources. Pollutants can enter the sea through inlets, drainages and atmospheric deposits. Atmospheric deposits are one of the most critical factors in increasing the pollutants in a lake. Dust storms, through the movement of plankton on the coast, increase some of the nutrients which ultimately cause the eutrophication and create red waves on the coast. Materials and methods: Particle measurement method is described by Dust fall jar, a standard method for collecting and measuring depositional particles in the air, according to ASTM D1739-98, 2004 standards. In this method, containers with standard size and shape are used. These containers are already installed in the laboratory and finally opened and deployed on suitable sites; so particles can be deposited in it for 30 days and then the particles were weighed. Acid digestion was used to measure heavy metals, and the heavy metals were determined using the ICP device. Information about the area of the lake and the volume of water behind the dam were collected from the Iran Water Resources Management. Excel 2016 was used to perform calculations and plotting graphs. Results: The results showed that the average dust fall particles around the Seimare dam were 10.85 g/m2.Month. On average, monthly 306 tons particles enter the dam through the air which increased the concentration of water particles by 0.32 mg /L. These particles increased the Fe and Al concentration in water to140 μg /L, 47.32 μg /L respectively. Conclusion: Fe had the highest content among the metals and formed a bulk of particles. Then, Al, Ti, Mn, Sn, Mg, K, Cr, Ni, Ba, Ca, Zr, Pb, Sr, V, Cu, Co, Li, Zn, Y, Mo, Tl, La, Be and Cd with the lowest amount, respectively. The results showed that most of the metals had high enrichment factor (EF). This represents the anthropogenic origin of these metals.

Keywords

• Dust fall; Heavy metals; Water quality; Seimare dam