ABSTRACT
Groundwater contamination due to the leaching of harmful pollutants such as heavy metals, xenobiotic compounds, and other inorganic compounds from solid waste dumping sites has become a major health concern in recent times. Therefore, to assess the effects of the Bandhwari landfill site, groundwater samples from the surrounding region of the dumping site were collected and analyzed for heavy metals and physicochemical properties. The total dissolved solids (TDS) of 67% of samples exceeded the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) permissible limits which makes it unfit for drinking purposes. The groundwater samples were also analyzed for iron (Fe), lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), cadmium (Cd), and chromium (Cr) concentrations and results of heavy metal concentration in the groundwater around the Bandhwari landfill follow the concentration trend of Pb > Cd > Ni > Cu > Zn > Fe > Cr. Risk assessment of consumers' health was done using target hazard quotient calculations which were less than unity (threshold value of <1), indicating that heavy metal concentrations do not pose any serious health effect according to total hazard quotient values. The results of the study made it evident that groundwater is not suitable for drinking purposes due to excess values of water quality parameters but poses no risk due to studied metal concentrations.
Subject(s)
Groundwater , Metals, Heavy , Water Pollutants, Chemical , Cadmium , Environmental Monitoring/methods , Chemometrics , Lead , Water Pollutants, Chemical/analysis , Metals, Heavy/analysis , Chromium , Groundwater/chemistry , India , Risk Assessment , Waste Disposal Facilities , EatingABSTRACT
The present work is aimed to analyze aerosols optical properties and to estimate aerosol radiative forcing (ARF) from January to December 2013, using sky radiometer data over Rohtak, an urban site in North-Western India. The results reveal strong wavelength dependency of aerosol optical depth (AOD), with high values of AOD at shorter wavelengths and lower values at longer wavelength during the study period. The highest AOD values of 1.07 ± 0.45 at 500â nm were observed during July. A significant decline in Ångström exponent was observed during April-May, which represents the dominance of coarse mode particles due to dust-raising convective activities. Aerosols' size distribution exhibits a bimodal structure with fine mode particles around 0.17â µm and coarse mode particles with a radius around 5.28â µm. Single scattering albedo values were lowest during November-December at all wavelengths, ranging from 0.87 to 0.76, which corresponds to the higher absorption during this period. Aerosols optical properties retrieved during observation period are used as input for SBDART (Santa Barbara DISORT Atmospheric Radiative Transfer) to estimate the direct ARF at the surface, in the atmosphere and at the top of the atmosphere (TOA). The ARF at the TOA, surface and in the atmosphere are found to be in the range of -4.98 to -19.35â Wâ m-2, -8.01 to -57.66â Wâ m-2 and +3.02 to +41.64â Wâ m-2, respectively. The averaged forcing for the whole period of observations at the TOA is -11.26â Wâ m-2, while at the surface it is -38.64â Wâ m-2, leading to atmospheric forcing of 27.38â Wâ m-2. The highest (1.168â Kâ day-1) values of heating rate was estimated during November, whereas the lowest value (0.084â Kâ day-1) was estimated for the February.