Variation of Heavy Metal Contents Along With Water Depth and Sediment at Laem Chabang Port and Bangkok Port, Thailand

Abstract

This research aimed to investigate a heavy metal contamination in water to the depth and sediment of Bangkok port (BKK) and Laem Chabang port (LCB) in wet and dry season, Water samples and sediments were collected from 8 stations of BKK at 0.3, 6.0 and 8.0 m. depth of water and 11 stations of LCB at 0.3, 8.0 and 11.0 m. depth of water. The amount of heavy metals were determined by US.EPA method 3015a for water and 3051 for sediment and Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry (AAS) technique. Moreover the water quality indicators of water were analyzed following the standard methods. The heavy metal contamination results revealed that at BKK in dry season Cd (0.064 mg/L) and Cu (0.241 mg/L) contamination and both seasons Pb contamination (0.781, 0.623 mg/L) was over than the standard criteria. Meanwhile at LCB, in both seasons Cd (0.013, 0.005 mg/L), Cu (0.760, 0.819 mg/L), Fe (125.152, 119.632 mg/L) and Pb (0.237, 0.286 mg/L) contamination were higher than the standard criteria. At LCB port and BKK port in both seasons, contamination of Cd, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb and Zn in each of depth ranges (0.3-8, 8-11, 0.3-11, 0.3-6, 6-8 and 0.3-8) were statistically insignificant difference (> 0.05) excepting Mn at BKK port in dry season at unit depth of water between 6-8 m. was statisticall significantly different (> 0.05). Furthermore, the heavy metals contamination in sediment results indicated that in both seasons BKK sediment had a heavy metal contamination higher than that of LCB sediment especially on Cr⁶⁺ (0.776-0.947 mg/L), Cu (1.135-1.328 mg/L) and Fe (357.900-384.879 mg/L)