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A Pilot Survey of Potentially Hazardous Trace Elements in the Aquatic Environment Near a Coastal Coal-Fired Power Plant in Taiwan - PubMed

  • ️Tue Jan 01 2019

A Pilot Survey of Potentially Hazardous Trace Elements in the Aquatic Environment Near a Coastal Coal-Fired Power Plant in Taiwan

Victor C Kok et al. Environ Health Insights. 2019.

Erratum in

Abstract

Background: A limited number of potentially hazardous trace elements were quantified in the aquatic environment near the world's second largest coal-fired power plant (CFPP) and the coal combustion residual (CCR) disposition sites in Central Taiwan. We postulated that contamination from specific trace elements would be present in the abovementioned aquatic environments.

Methods: Cross-sectional sampling of trace elements was first performed between September 24, 2017 and October 3, 2017 outside the CFPP, in the effluent sampled from Changhua, a county south of metropolitan Taichung, and at the historical CCR disposal sites, using the intertidal zone surface seawater and the seawater in an oyster farm as controls. Aqueous samples were collected from 12 locations for analysis of 13 trace elements (Al, As, B, Cd, total Cr, Co, Fe, Pb, Mn, Se, Sr, Tl, and V). We used inductively coupled plasma (ICP) optical emission spectrometry to determine B and Fe levels, and ICP mass spectrometry for all other trace elements. The Spearman rank correlation coefficient (Rho) was calculated to examine the pairwise relation among the trace elements.

Results: Al (50% of all samples), B (66.7%), Fe (25%), Mn (50%), Sr (8.3%), and V (25%) were identified as being above the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation limit. The oyster farm seawater had no concerns. Mn (96.4 μg/L) in the CFPP drainage effluent was 1.9-fold above the regulation limit. Fe, Mn, and V were detected from the cooling channel at 4379, 625, and 11.3 μg/L, respectively. The effluent and water from the areas surrounding the 2 CCR dump sites revealed similar magnitudes of trace element contamination. B is highly correlated with Sr (Rho = 0.94, 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.80-0.98). Meanwhile, Fe is highly correlated with Al (Rho = 0.77), Pb (Rho = 0.71), Co (Rho = 0.75), and V (Rho = 0.84).

Conclusions: The EPA must set an explicit regulation limit for aluminum, boron, iron, and strontium in the aquatic environment. This exploratory research will inform policymaking regarding certain trace elements that could potentially have an adverse impact on public health and wildlife.

Keywords: Trace elements; aquatic; boron; coal combustion residuals; coal-fired power plant; pollution.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests:The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.

Locations of the 12 aquatic samples collected are pinpointed in the Google map for trace element contamination survey in Central Taiwan (Map data ©2018 Google), including 3 near the Taichung CFPP, 5 from the Changhua CCR disposal site, 2 from the historic CCR disposal site, and 2 from the background seawater (intertidal zone and Yunlin oyster farm). CCR indicates coal combustion residual; CFPP, coal-fired power plant.

Figure 2.
Figure 2.

Google satellite map (Map data ©2018 Google) showing (A) the Taichung coal-fired power plant where aqueous samples were obtained from No. 10 (Sample 10-BGA), seawater sample from the power plant seawater cooling channel; No. 11 (Sample 11-BGC), a freshwater sample from the power plant southern discharge port; and No. 12 (Sample 12-AY), a freshwater sample from the power plant’s eastern discharge port. (B) The location in Changhua considered the coal combustion residual (CCR) disposal site.

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