Geochemical Assessment of Environmental Effects of Ash from Yatagan (Mugla-Turkey) Thermal Power Plant

Yatagan Thermal Power Plant consumes low-quality ligniteproduced from the Yatagan Basin, located in the western part ofthe Aegean region nearby Mugla City. The basin is aligned in anorthwest-southeast direction. The dominant wind direction isalso northwest-southeast, which controls the boundary of thewaste at the disposal site. In this study, the concentration of30 volatile elements was analyzed in coal, bottom ash, fly ashand background soil. The study area was divided into grids. The size of the grids was 1 km2 for the background soiland 50–100 m for the ash in the vicinity of the wastedisposal site. 15 fly and bottom ash, six coal and nine-background soil samples were analyzed according to a sequential technique using ICP-AES. The results reveal that heavy metal concentrations in the coal are below the world averages for coal whereas those of bottom ash and fly ash arewithin the world averages for the respective ashes, indicatingheavy metal enrichment. It is recommended that extra care shouldbe taken to prevent subsurface contamination in the study area.