Monitoramento geoquímico e ambiental da qualidade dos sedimentos no Rio Ipojuca no Polo Têxtil do Agreste de Pernambuco - Brasil

Abstract

The quality of sediments of the Ipojuca river in the textile pole is influenced by the contribution of several sources of materials from the urban and industrial zone in the city of Caruaru-PE. The purpose of this study was to analyze the sediments of the Ipojuca River in the city of Caruaru-PE, observing and comparing the concentrations of the metals with international and national standards to assess environmental vulnerability. The sample points were defined based on the zones with proximity to the laundries existing in the urban center of the municipality. The study was carried out through determinations of the concentrations of 24 chemical elements, distributed in 14 samples of surface sediments in the Ipojuca River and the Salgado Creek. The results indicate that there is a high concentration of potentially polluting metals such as As, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn, comparing them with international limits and still showed high values for the same metals enrichment factor. The analysis of main components evidenced a grouping of some samples of the Ipojuca River with the salty creek, associating its low quality with the polluting load coming from areas with dense presence of textile laundries and other commercial activities in general. Thus, it was possible to characterize, geochemically, the Ipojuca river in two sectors with greater and lesser degrees of environmental vulnerability, the most critical being the one that receives input directly from the commercial activities close to its course. These results suggest a high risk of exposure to human health, suggesting the need to improve the management of the effluents that are discarded in the Ipojuca River in the urban stretch of the city of Caruaru.