Impact of Fugitive Dust Emission from Bauxite Crushing Industry on Soil Contamination (Case Study: Jajarm Alumina Factory)

Introduction: The origination of dust is often due to the wind erosion process. However dust emissions are sometimes the result of industrial activity during the production process, which is called industrial dust. One of these industries is rock crushing whose raw material is transferred from the mines to the factory. During the process of crushing, smaller pieces are eventually converted. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of fugitive dust emission from Bauxite crushing plant on soil contamination around Jajarm Alumina Factory Methods: In this study, topmost 0-2 cm of the soil near the station was sampled. Out of a total of 47 soil samples, 22 samples were taken from a transect in the length of 3000 m (in the direction of erosive winds), and 24 soil samples from a transect in the length of 5000 m in the direction of the prevailing wind, and at least three samples from the control area were sampled. Heavy metals of Nickel and Arsenic were measured using the ICP-OES method. Results: Average amount of Arsenic in the direction of erosive and prevailing winds were determined 16.28 and 28.8 mg/kg, respectively. The average amount of Nickel in the direction of erosive and prevailing winds determined respectively 39.6 and 53.1 mg/kg. Conclusions: A comparison between the obtained results and the standard quality shows that the amount of Arsenic and Nickel at the bottom of the bauxite crusher especially along the prevailing wind region is relatively high. So, along the wind erosion direction up to the vicinity of the workplace, and alongside the dominant wind up to 1200 m, the amount of heavy metals (especially Arsenic) was above the standard.