EVALUATION OF HEAVY METALS IN WATER RESOURCES OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF BOQUIRA, IN SEMI-ARID OF BAHIA – BRAZIL
Evaluation of heavy metals in water resources of the municipality of Boquira, in the semi-arid of Bahia - Brazil
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5016/geociencias.v39i1.14013Abstract
The municipality of Boquira, located in the south central portion of the state of Bahia, is situated in a geological environment with important natural background for Pb and Zn, where it hosted between the years of 1960 and 1992 the largest mine of Pb and Zn of Brazil. The aim was to evaluate the quality of the water resources used for human consumption in the municipality, against possible natural and/or anthropic contamination by metals, and the influence of the environmental liabilities left in the municipality after the sudden abandonment of the mining. For this purpose, field campaigns and water aliquot sampling were carried out with the objective of performing laboratory chemical analysis for monitoring and comparison with other authors. It was concluded that there is influence of the natural background of the rocks of the municipality of Boquira on the water resources used by the population, given values above the Maximum Allowable Value for human consumption for metals such as Ca, Mg, and Na. Although the highest concentrations for metals such as Pb, Zn and Cd were in the waters of the underground tailings and mine galleries, high levels of these metals were not found in the analyzed water resources.