Title

A Survey of Heavy Metals Present in the Soils of a Retention Pond for parking Lot Runoff.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2011

Abstract

Twelve 30 cm deep soil samples associated with a retention pond which accumulates runoff from a parking lot were sampled and analyzed for copper, cadmium, iron, lead, nickel, and zinc concentrations by flame atomic absorption spectrometry. Soil from the basin of the retention pond had a significantly higher concentration of copper, zinc, lead, and nickel than the control soil samples taken from sites above the level of runoff water. The metal concentrations observed were on average 73.9, 30.5, 136.1, and 365.7 ppm with controls of 17.7, 17.1, 73.2, and 113.1 ppm for copper, nickel, zinc, and lead, respectively. This statistically significant difference (p-values from 9.12 × 10⁻⁶ to 3.6 × 10⁻³) in mean concentration suggests that the parking lot runoff is adding a measureable amount of copper, lead, zinc, and nickel to the soil of the retention pond.

Comments

Originally published as: Jennifer Esbenshade and Richard W. Schaeffer; A Survey of Heavy Metals Present in the Soils of a Retention Pond for parking Lot Runoff. Journal of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science 85(1):23-26, 2011. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44149742

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