Bioavailability of arsenic in soil and mine wastes of the Tamar valley,SW England |
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| Authors: | Peter J. Kavanagh Margaret E. Farago Iain Thornton Robert S. Braman |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Environmental Geochemistry Research Group, Centre for Environmental Technology, Royal School of Mines, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, Prince Consort Road, London, SW7 2BP, UK;2. Department of Chemistry, University of South Florida, Tampa 33610, USA |
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| Abstract: | ABSTRACTThe southern part of the Tamar valley area in SW England is highly mineralised and mines in the region were the world's principal producers of tin, copper and arsenic during the mid nineteenth century. The Devon Great Consols Mine, covering 67.6 ha (167 acres) is situated in this area. Residues from the mining activity resulted in unvegetated spoil tips and local soils highly contaminated with As (range 120–52600 μg/g As). Sequential chemical extraction procedures were conducted on eight surface samples (0–15 cm) taken from a 2.0 km long transect from within the mine site to agricultural grassland. The proportion of water extractable As in agricultural top soils was lower (0.05–0.3%) than the values obtained for mine wastes (0.02–1.2%). Arsenic was found to be concentrated in the Fe-organic and residual fractions, which accounted for up 93 % of the total As in mine spoil and nearby soils. |
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| Keywords: | Arsenic soil Tamar Valley sequential extractions bioavailability |
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