Monitoring contamination by heavy metals in San Antonio Bay, Argentina.

N.N. VÁZQUEZ; GIL MÓNICA; ESTEVES JL; NARVARTE M

BULLETIN OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINATION AND TOXICOLOGY

Springer

Año: 2007 vol. 79 p. 121 - 125

0007-4861

By 1994, some environmental impacts of a mine’s presence, called Gonzalito, began to be studied in the marine environment of San Antonio bay (Fig. 1). The first report to detect the presence of a point source of pollution and the distribution of metals levels within the Bay were carried out between 1994 and 1995 (Gil et al. 1997, 1999).  The Gonzalito mine operated 107 km from San Antonio Oeste between the 1960s until its closure in the 1980s, and was involved in extraction of zinc, lead, silver and vanadium. In 1961, the company built an electrochemical plant within San Antonio Oeste city itself, for the production of lead and silver. The heavy metals ore excavated from the mines were smelted in the plant. The wastes produced in this process were piled in the open air in different locations around the city and on the edges of San Antonio bay. We analyzed contaminant levels in sediments and in small mussels (Brachydontes Rodriguezi (D’Orb.1846)-Bivalvia, Mollusca) that cover soft and sandy sediments. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the heavy metal contamination levels in San Antonio bay, nine years after these concentrations were for the first time measured. As a result, it is important for conservation, management and public health reasons to update those studies, in order to provide information to make recommendations for ecological or human health applications.