Preliminary investigation on sediment pollution and identification of pollutant sources in the Sungai Pinang river basin
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Date
2019-06
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Abstract
A study was conducted to analyse the type and concentration of pollutants at
Sungai Pinang and its five tributaries which are; Sungai Air Terjun, Sungai Air Hitam,
Sungai Air Putih, Sungai Dondang and Sungai Jelutong. Sungai Pinang is located at the
north-east of Penang Island (5.4056°N, 100.3232°E). For this study, four types of test
were conducted that are TKN, TOC, ICP-OES and XRF. TKN is a test that can identify
the concentration of Kjeldahl Nitrogen in the samples, whilst TOC is to identify the
concentration of organic carbon present in the samples. ICP-OES and XRF tests were
done to identify the possible heavy metals exist in the samples. The heavy metals
concentrations were compared with the allowable permissible limits from WHO, EURS,
US-EPA, Canada, Japan, Poland and Australia. The main objective of this study is to
identify the sediment pollutant concentration at all of the tributaries and main river of
Sungai Pinang river basin. In addition, the study objective is to identify the potential
pollutant contribution of sediment pollution due to human activities and correlate the
level of concentration in the river sediment with the human activities. The final objective
is to map out the pollution levels throughout the catchment area using GIS. There were
19 sampling points altogether, nine at the main river which is Sungai Pinang and other
10 points at the downstream and upstream of each of the tributaries. TOC shows the
highest concentration at Point 5 with concentration of 3.764%, whilst TKN shows the
highest concentration at Point 9 with concentration of 7.64%. This happen may due to
the low flow rate of river which has affected the flowing of organic matter, nitrogen and
phosphorus causing them to be stagnant in the river. From the ICP-OES and XRF test,
the concentration of heavy metals were measured. The heavy metals concentration
measured for ICP-OES test were; As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb and Zn. Whilst, for XRF
test, the heavy metals measured were; P2O5, K2O, Na2O, CaO, MgO, MnO, Fe2O3, Al2O3, TiO2 and
SiO2. However, the heavy metals concentration were still under the permissible
limits given in Table 2.2. Higher percentage or concentration of then would give impact
to the environment, as well as aquatic organisms and plants. The results obtained from
both test were correlate with human activity across the rivers, and finally map out using
GIS.