Assessment of Heavy Metals Concentrations in Groundwater- Kefal District A Case Study

Abstract

The purpose of current study is zoning and determining the concentration of heavy metals including Manganese (Mn), Lead (Pb), Cadmium (Cd), Copper (Cu), Iron (Fe), Zinc (Zn),  and  Boron (B) in the groundwater resources of Al-Kefal area located around the area in the southern part of Babil governorate. The amounts of heavy metals in the collected samples were determined by the Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES) technique. The maximum concentrations of  Mn,  Pb , Cd , Cu, Fe, Zn,  and   B were 6.0, 4.0 , 0.05, 1.6, 4.6 and 3.5 mg/l, respectively. The correlation analysis shows highly positive correlation between Cadmium, Copper and Iron,  and Boron shows high correlation with lead. The area of Tarabls primary S 1 and well no. 14 recognized as a highly polluted by heavy metals. The results of PCA recognized three factors i,e, D1, D2, D3,  based on factor loading and factor scores, D1 indicate that well no. 14 is highly polluted by Mn, Cd, and Fe , while D2  shows well nos. 3-6 and 12  are highly polluted by B and Lead, whereas, D3  recognized wells nos, 1 and 15 are highly polluted by Cu.