STUDY ON QUANTITY OF HEAVY METALS IN WATER AND SEDIMENTS INTO SAM PHAD CREEK, KUMPHAWAPI DISTRICT, UDON THANI PROVINCE Study on Quantity of Heavy metals in Water and Sediments: Case study on Incident of mineral contamination into Sam Phad Creek, Kumphawapi District, UdonThani Province

Abstract

The objective of this study was to analyze the amount of heavy metals, namely, copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), zinc (Zn), cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) in water and sediments of Sam Phad Creek. Samples were collected from May to June 2018 from five collection points in Kumphawapi District, Udon Thani Province consisting of Point 1 Ban Nadi, Phasuk Subdistrict; Point 2 Ban Nadi, Phasuk Subdistrict; Point 3 Ban Sang Bong, Phasuk Subdistrict; Point 4 Ban Mak Ba, Chiang Wae Subdistrict; and Point 5 Ban Chiang Wae, Chiang Wae Subdistrict. The results from this study reveal that the heavy metal contents in Point 2 were high in May, especially the amount of copper in water and sediment which were 0.2918 mg/L and 9,765.067 mg/kg respectively and were significantly different from other collection points (p ≤ 0.05). The results indicated that the amount of heavy metals in the water source decreased in June. For the amount of heavy metals in sediment, it was found that Cu (9,765.067 mg/kg), Ni (41.100 mg/kg), Zn (161.367 mg/kg ), Cd (1.667mg/kg) and Pb (92.83 mg/kg) exceeded the sediment standard criteria which could be harmful to the benthic animals and the organisms that live in this sediment layer such as crabs, shellfish and other benthic animals as well as plants in Sam Phad Creek area. It may affect to humans through the food chain as well.