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Soil Contamination From Tannery Wastes with Emphasis on the Fate and Distribution of Tri- and Hexavalent Chromium

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Abstract

Industrial wastes generated from tanneries located in the southwestern part of Dhaka, pose serious threat to the environment. Surface accumulation of trivalent chromium reaching as high as 28,000 mg/kg have been encountered at 1 km distance from the waste lagoon. In contrast, maximum concentration of hexavalent chromium is about 1 mg/kg, and is very irregularly distributed all over the area. Although soil pH is alkaline in general, a sharp drop of pH down to 3.4 has been observed at some locations. Furthermore, high chloride (Cl) and lead (Pb) concentrations pose risk for city’s groundwater quality, of which Pb is vulnerable for any chelate-assisted phytoremediation as it can enhance its mobility. Scanning electron microscope study showed chromium within the structure of clay minerals, mainly illite–smectite, and also as chlorite–chromian. Presence of lepidocrocite indicates a rather reactive phase which can undergo reductive dissolution and release Cr in the environment.

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Acknowledgement

Author is grateful to the Afro-Asiatische Institute, Salzburg, Austria, for the financial support to carry out this research project. Thanks are also due to Mr. Anwar Zahid, Deputy Director, Bangladesh Water Development Board, and to Tarek Mahmud Shams, for their help during the field sampling in Dhaka Bangladesh in February 2005. Thanks are also due to Dr. Anna Bieniok, Prof. Fritz Finger, and Miss Biljana Starijas for their cooperation for XRD, XRF and SEM analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography and Geology, University of Salzburg, 5020, Salzburg, Austria

    Khaled Mahmud Shams & Gottfried Tichy

  2. AGES, Spargelfeldstrasse 191, 1226, Vienna, Austria

    Manfred Sager

  3. Department of Organism Biology, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria

    Thomas Peer

  4. Institute of Geotechnical Engineering and Mine Surveying, TU Clausthal, Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany

    Ashtar Bashar

  5. Department of Molecular Biology, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria

    Marija Jozic

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  1. Khaled Mahmud Shams
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  2. Gottfried Tichy
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  3. Manfred Sager
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  4. Thomas Peer
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  5. Ashtar Bashar
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Correspondence to Khaled Mahmud Shams.

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Shams, K.M., Tichy, G., Sager, M. et al. Soil Contamination From Tannery Wastes with Emphasis on the Fate and Distribution of Tri- and Hexavalent Chromium. Water Air Soil Pollut 199, 123–137 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-008-9865-y

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