Contamination Assessment and Source Apportionment of Soil Heavy Metals in Typical Villages and Towns in a Nonferrous Metal Mining City

To investigate the soil contamination degree and potential ecological risk level of heavy metals in villages and towns in Tongling City, we collected 67 surface soil samples (including surface dusts and river sediments) from the typical districts, namely Shun'an Town, Zhongming Town, and Yi'an Economic Development Zone, and measured the contents of heavy metals including Cu, Zn, Pb, Cr, Cd, As, and Ni. Then, spatial distribution characteristics of heavy metals were analyzed, and their contamination degree and potential ecological risk were assessed. Finally, source apportionment of soil heavy metals was conducted using factor analysis. The results showed that the soil pH was weakly acidic in the study area, and the average contents of Cu, Zn, Cr, Cd, As, and Ni were 4.94, 2.89, 2.07, 0.94, 7.97, 4.03, and 2.02 times their soil background values in Tongling City, respectively. In general, the contents of soil heavy metals in the western part were higher than those in the eastern part across the studied area. According to the Nemerow pollution index, Cu, Cd, As, and Pb reached pollution levels; Zn, and Ni approached moderate pollution levels; and Cr belonged to the no pollution degree category. The Nemerow comprehensive pollution index of different land types was arranged in the order of river bed > town district > industrial land > vegetable land > agricultural land > mountain forest > village. On the whole, the contamination degree of soil heavy metals in the study area reached severe pollution levels. The order of potential ecological risk coefficients of soil heavy metals was Cd>As>Cu>Pb>Ni>Zn>Cr, in which Cd belonged to the extremely high risk level, Cu and As belonged to the medium risk level, and the others were all low risk levels. The potential ecological risk levels corresponding to different land types were as follows: river bed > town distribution > industrial land > vegetable land > agricultural land > village > mountain forest. The industrial land, vegetable land, and town district generally reached a very high risk level, and the agricultural land reached a high risk, whereas both village and mountain forest land showed a medium risk. Principal component analysis showed that Cu, Zn, Pb, Cd, and As in the study area were derived from local metal mining pollution; Cr was from both the geological background and metal mining pollution; and Ni mainly came from fossil fuel combustion. © 2022 Science Press. All rights reserved.