HEAVY METAL CONTAMINATION OF SOIL IN WASTEWATER IRRIGATED FROM

THE TO LICH AND KIM NGUU RIVER SYSTEM IN HANOI, VIETNAM

HUONG THI LAN NGUYEN1

I
International Cooperation Office, Water Resources University, Vietnam
Email: nl_huong_99@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT
The To Lich and Kim Nguu Rivers, laden with untreated waste from industrial sources, serves as sources of water for irrigating
vegetable farms. The purpose of this study is to identify the impact of waste-water irrigation on the level of heavy metals in the soils
and vegetables, and to predict their potential mobility and bioavailability. Soil samples were collected from the locations of different
distances from the canal. The average concentrations of the heavy metals in the soil were in the order: Zn (204 mg kg-1) > Cu (196 mg kg-
1
) > Cr (175 mg kg-1) > Pb (131 mg kg-1) > Ni (60 mg kg-1) > Cd (4 mg kg-1). The concentrations of all heavy metals in the study site was
much higher than the background level in that area, and exceeded the permissible level of the Vietnamese standard for Cd, Cu and Pb.
The concentrations of Zn, Ni and Pb in the surface soil exhibited decreased with distance from the canal. The results of selective
sequential extraction procedure indicated that dominant fractions were oxide, organic and residual for Ni, Pb and Zn, organic and
oxide for Cr, oxide for Cd, and organic for Cu. Leaching tests for water and acid indicated that the ratio of leached metal concentration
to total metal concentration in the soil decreased in the order: of Cd > Ni > Cr > Pb > Cu > Zn, and in the order of: Cd > Ni > Cr > Zn
> Cu > Pb for the EDTA treatment. The EDTA treatment gave higher leachability than other treatments for most metal types. By
leaching with water and acid, all heavy metals were released fully from the exchangeable fraction, and some heavy metals were fully
from carbonate and oxide fractions. The concentrations of Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn in the vegetables exceeded the Vietnamese
standard. The transfer coefficient for the metals was in the order of: Zn > Ni > Cu > Cd = Cr > Pb.

Key words: Agricultural soils, Heavy metal, Selective Sequential Extraction, Leaching

INTRODUCTION
Heavy metal contamination of soil resulting from wastewater
irrigation is a cause of serious concern due to the potential
health impacts of consuming contaminated produce. In
suburban areas, the use of industrial or municipal wastewater
is common practice in many parts of the world (Feigin et al.
1991), including Vietnam (Nguyen et al. 2007). Access to
adequate water for irrigation is a matter of increasing concern
in Vietnam. To face the growing demand for irrigation water,
nonconventional resources are often used. Importance sources
of heavy metals in wastewater are urban and industrial
effluents, deterioration of sewage pipe and treatment works,
and the wear of household plumbing fixtures. Wastewater
irrigation is known to contribute significantly to the heavy
metal content of soils (Singh et al. 2004). A number of
previous studies from developing countries have reported
heavy metal contamination in wastewater and wastewater-
irrigated soil (Mapanda et al. 2005; Singh et al. 2004).
However, there are very few empirical data from Vietnam for
heavy metal contamination of water and river sediment and its
transfers to the soil and crops.
Determining the total concentration of heavy metals is
inadequate to assess the behavior and potential risk to the
environment. Therefore, information on heavy metal
distribution in various chemical forms upon should be
employed to envisage the potential contamination risk and
ensuing environmental damage (Ahumada et al. 1999). The
behavior (e.g., bioavailability, mobility, toxicity and
distribution) of heavy metals in soils depends on not only on
their total concentrations, but also on their mobility and
reactivity with other of components of ecosystem. Accordingly,
the knowledge of the interactions between the heavy metals and
the soil matrix is required to judge their environment impact. At
present, the most common way to study heavy behavior in soils
is by treatment with extractants of different chemical properties
(Abollino et al. 2002).
Recently, increasing industrialization and population growth
have led to increasing fluxes of many heavy metals to soils
and sediments of To Lich and Kim Nguu river system in
Hanoi City, Vietnam (Ho and Egashira, 2000). This has also
great relevance to the Hanoi agro-ecosystem, where the
wastes produced in urban and industrial areas provide the
most likely sources of heavy metal pollution, and the
dominant sources of soil heavy metal pollution are sewage
irrigation. Water used for irrigation in agricultural soil of
Hanoi City is seriously polluted by industrial wastewater
(Nguyen et al. 2007). In the long term, irrigation may cause
the accumulation of heavy metals at toxic concentrations in
the soil and adversely affect both soil microbiological
processes and plant growth.
The present study is based on agricultural soil at the Tam Hiep
commune, Thanh Tri district, Hanoi, Vietnam which is
estimated as one of the most polluted agricultural soil areas of
Hanoi City, and where wastewater from the To Lich and Kim
Nguu river system has been commonly used for irrigation of
peri-urban crops for several decades. The objective of this
study is to examine the heavy metal contamination of
agricultural soil and plants subjected to the irrigation water
polluted with wastes from various industrial plants in Hanoi.
The retention and potential mobility of heavy metals were
assessed based on the contents of total and fractionated heavy
metals in the soil and their leachability.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Irrigation Water, Sampling Site and Soil Samples
Water from the To Lich and Kim Nguu Rivers is used to
irrigate agricultural land in Tam Hiep Commune of Thanh Tri
District. The irrigation water is heavily polluted with wastes
from domestic (60-80%) and industrial (20-40%) source
(Klank et al. 2006). Table 1 shows the chemical properties of
the water irrigated to the paddy field used for the present
study. The total concentrations of Pb, Zn and Cr in the
irrigation water exceeded the permissible level of the
Vietnamese standard for irrigation water (TCVN 6773-2000).
The sampling of soil and vegetables was conducted on
December 3 to 6, 2005. The sampling site is located in Thanh
Tri District of Tam Hiep Commune in Hanoi City. A pumping
station situated near the river and pumps water into the field
area by demand. During the dry season which last until the
beginning of April, the pump station is generally activated
twice a week and daily during the harvest. Fields are then
flooded with water. During the wet season the pumping
station is activated less frequently, typically 1 to 2 times per
month. The pumping station pumps the water into a concrete-
lined open canal which runs alongside on end of the fields.
Outlets from this canal are present for every field and the
waster is distributed from the canal to the other end of the
field area (about 200m). No waste water is spread onto the
fields manually. Untreated water is pumped into the field to
irrigate and fertilize mainly not only morning glory crops but
also water dropt and spinach.

1.
 Table 1. Chemical properties and heavy metal concentrations of irrigated water a
Cu Pb Zn
Items
(mg kg-1)
Water soluble 0.41 0.22 0.37
Total 1 0.91 1.87
TCVN b 0.1 1 0.005
a
Quoted from Nguyen et al. (2007)
b
TCVN 6773-2000: applied to irrigated water
Chen et al. (2007) showed a significant influence of distance
within 25m of the canal on the heavy metal concentration of
soil. The soil samples were collected from the depths of 0-20,
20-40 and 40-60 cm at the locations of various distances from
the canal: 0, 20 and 60m (Fig. 4.1 and Table 4.1). All soil
samples were brought to Japan after air-drying, and then
ground, passed through a 1mm sieve, and preserved in plastic
bottles.
Figure 1. Site sampling location and plan
Chemical and Physical Properties of the Soil
The value of pH was measured using soil
suspension with soil-water ratio of 1:2.5 in weight. Organic
carbon was determined by the Tyurin method and organic
matter content was obtained by multiplying by the coefficient
of 1.724 (Committee of Soil standard methods for Analyses
and Measurement, 1986). Cation exchange capacity (CEC)
was measured by the method proposed by Muramoto et al.
(1992).
For particle-size analysis, 10 g of air-dried sample
was treated with hot 7% H 2O2 to remove organic matter,
dispersed by ultrasonic vibration (tank-type; 38 kHz, 250W),
and deflocculated by adjusting pH to 10 with addition of 1M
NaOH. The pipette method was used for the particle-size
analysis.
Determination of Total Metal Concentration
For total heavy metal analysis, the solid was digested with a
mixture of hydrofluoric, nitric and perchloric acids. For a 1 g
Leaching Test
Cd Cr Ni EC DO
pH
(mS cm-1) (mg L-1)
0.09 3.79 0.24
0.09 5.36 0.29 10 0.76 0.2
0.1 5.5 8.5 2
(dry weight) sample, the soil was first digested in a Teflon
beaker with a solution of concentrated HClO4 (5 mL) and
HNO3 (5 mL) to nearly dryness, subsequently a second
addition of HClO4 (5 mL) and HF (10 mL) was made and
again the mixture was evaporated to nearly dryness. Finally,
HF (10 mL) alone was added and the sample was evaporated
until the appearance of white fumes. The residue was
dissolved in 6 M HCl (5 mL) and HNO3 (1 mL) by heating for
2 h. After adding 20 mL water, the sample was heated for 2 h
and diluted to 50 mL. The resulting solution was then
analyzed by atomic absorption spectroscopy.
Total heavy metal of vegetable: 1g of plant was dissolved in
10 ml of HNO3, boiled until was dried out, and immersed in
10 ml of 30% H2O2. Then the H2O2 solution evaporated until
the plant sample was dried out, and finally it was dissolved in
12.5 ml of 25% HNO3 while heating, followed by dilution to
50 ml and dissolved metals in the supernatant were analyzed
by atomic absorption spectrophotometer (SOLAAR 2S,
Nippon Jarrel-ash Co., Ltd.).
Selective Sequential Extraction (SSE) of Heavy Metals
The SSE methods were adopted from Tessier et al. (1979), Li
and Li (2001), and Yong et al. (2001). The basic utility of SSE
is its use of appropriate reagents to release different heavy
metal fractions from soil solids by progressively destroying
the binding agents between the metals and the soil solids and
permitting the metal species to be detected at each stage.
(1) Initial rinse: To remove the heavy metals dissolved in the
pore water, 8 mL of distilled water were added to the soil
sample and centrifuged. (2) Exchangeable cations extraction:
8 mL of 1M potassium nitrate (KNO3) with pH 7 were added
to the samples, agitated for 1 h in a rotary shaker at 22 rpm
and centrifuged. (3) Carbonate: 8 mL of 1M sodium acetate
(NaOAc), adjusted to pH 5.0 using acetic acid (HOAc) were
added to the sample to release metals precipitated with
carbonates. After agitation for 5 h, the sample was centrifuged
at 2,200 rpm. (4) Oxides and hydroxides: 20 ml of 0.004 M
hydroxylamine hydrochloride (NH3OH HCl) in 25% (v/v)
HOAc was added to the sample, agitated occasionally at
962C for 6 h, and centrifuged to extract all metals
precipitated as hydroxides and/or adsorbed on the oxides or
the amorphous hydroxides. (5) Organics: Heavy metals bound
to organic constituents in soil via complexation, adsorption
and chelation. This extraction was divided into three phases:
Phase (i): via 3 mL of 0.02M nitric acid (HNO 3) and 5 mL of
30% H2O2 adjusted to pH 2.0 with HNO 3 occasionally
agitated at 852. Phase (ii): with 3mL of 30% H2O2 (at pH
2.0), intermittently agitated for 3 h at 852C. Phase (iii): by
5mL of 3.2M ammonium acetate (NH4OAc) in 20% (v/v)
HNO3, diluted to 20 mL, and continuously agitated at room
temperature for 30 min. (6) Residual fractions: Metals bound
to the soil solids via specific adsorption in soil mineral lattice
were extracted by digestion. The residue (after previous four
stages) was digested with HNO 3 and centrifuged. In each of
the above procedures, the supernatant collected by
centrifugation was analyzed for heavy metal concentrations
using an atomic adsorption spectrophotometer.
Batch leaching tests (USEPA, 1987) were used to determine
the heavy metal leachability of soil samples. The leaching
2.
solutions used were distilled water (pH 5.5), nitric acid
(HNO3), acetic acid (CH3COOH) at pH 4 and 1M ethylene
diamine tetra acid (EDTA). The EDTA is the most effective
and popular reagent because it is strong, recoverable and
relatively biostable chelating agent that has potential for
heavy metal leaching. An air-dried 2g soil sample and 20 ml
of the respective leaching solutions above were placed in a 50
ml polypropylene centrifuge tube. Duplicate samples were
prepared for all tests. The samples were shaken continuously
for 24 h on a mechanical shaker at 30 rpm, and then
centrifuged at 3500 rpm for 15 minutes. For each sample the
supernatant was analyzed for Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn using
atomic adsorption spectrophotometer.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Properties of the Soil
The chemical and physical properties of the soil samples are
shown in Table 2. The pH (H2O) and pH (KCl) were in a range of
6.5-7.8 and 7.3 to 7.9, respectively, suggesting the natural
condition of soils was lightly alkaline, effect of pH irrigation
water was higher pH for top soil, pH decrease slightly with
the depth and significantly with distance from the canal. The
organic matter content and CEC were higher in the surface
soil (0-20 cm) than in the subsurface soil (20-40 cm). The
exchangeable Ca and Mg were predominant, and the surface
soil exhibited higher total cation concentration than the
subsurface soil. The clay fraction ranged from 14.7 to 35%,
being classified as loam, silt loam or silt clay loam. The total
cation concentration increased while the clay fraction
decreased with distance from the road.
The relative percentage of clay minerals was calculated based
on the peak intensity of the minerals (Nguyen and Egashira,
2005), and the results are given in Table 3. Mica and kaolinite
were predominant with a range of 40 to 42% and 20 to 29 %,
respectively, followed by chlorite, quartz, vermiculite and
feldspar. The mineral composition thus obtained was similar
to that reported by Ho et al. (1998) for agricultural soil in
Hanoi.
Heavy Metal Concentration in the Soil
Total heavy metal concentrations in the soil samples are
shown in Table 4. The average concentration of the heavy
metals in the soil was in the order: Zn (204 mg kg-1) > Cu (196
mg kg-1) > Cr (175 mg kg-1) > Pb (131 mg kg-1) > Ni (60 mg kg-1)
> Cd (4 mg kg-1). The metal concentration exhibited different
values by the location and depth. The metal concentration was
higher in the surface soil than in the subsurface soil for all
locations and metal types. This would be due to the higher
organic matter content in the surface soil than in the
subsurface soil (Table 2). The metal concentration in the
surface soil exhibited marked decreases for Zn, Ni and Pb
with distance from the canal. This would be due to more
adsorption of heavy metals in the irrigation water at the
locations closer to the water intake of the paddy field.
For the sewage irrigated soil, greater amounts of heavy metals
were observed, especially for Cd, Zn, Pb, Cr (Chen et al.
2007). According to Yamadera and Suzuki, (2004), soil of
Hanoi city general developed on alluvial deposit from Red
river. Mica as well as a kaolinite and chlorite dominate clay
minerals over the whole region. Thus, there is no big
difference in the parent material of soils. Therefore, the great
elevation of heavy metal concentrations in soil of study area
can be considered to result from using polluted irrigation
water.
Compared with the background level of heavy metals in the
soil that has not been subjected to polluted water irrigation
(Ho et al. 1998), heavy metals in all locations of the study site
exhibited higher concentration, and the total concentrations of
Cd, Cu and Pb exceeded the permissible level of the Vietnamese
standard for agricultural soil (TCVN 7029-2002). These indicate
that the excess heavy metal concentrations in the study site
can be attributed mainly to the application of polluted
irrigation water to the soil.

Table 2. Chemical and physical properties of agricultural soil

Exchangeable cation (cmolc kg-1) Particle size distribution (%)

( 2-20 m)Silt
( <2 m)Clay

( 20-200m)Fine sand

1000m)Coarse sand ( 200-

No pH
CEC (cmolc kg-1)

H2O
Depth (cm)
Location

OM
Textureb

a
pH
Total

KCl (%) Ca Mg K Na

1 0-20 S1 8.3 7.8 2.3 12.0 14.9 4.0 0.3 0.3 19.5 16.7 50.7 27.7 5.0 L
20-40 S2 8.2 7.6 2.0 11.3 8.8 3.9 0.3 0.2 13.1 17.7 62.7 15.5 4.2 SiL
40-60 S3 8.2 7.5 1.1 10.3 8.2 3.4 0.4 0.1 12.1 16.8 60.5 14.7 8.0 SiL
2 0-20 S4 7.7 6.9 2.8 12.6 7.0 3.8 0.3 0.3 11.3 28.1 61.0 8.4 2.5 SiCL
20-40 S5 7.6 6.8 1.8 11.7 6.8 3.6 0.4 0.3 11.0 29.7 63.3 4.2 2.9 SiCL
40-60 S6 7.2 6.5 1.2 10.3 6.6 3.6 0.4 0.2 10.7 35 59.3 2.7 3.1 SiCL
3 0-20
S 7 7.7 6.8 2.6 9.9 6.0 2.4 0.3 0.1 8.8 14.7 36.2 46.0 3.2 L
20-40 S 8 7.6 6.6 2.4 8.6 5.2 2.1 0.3 0.1 7.7 16.3 45.0 36.5 2.7 L
a
OM. Organic matter
b. L: Loam; SiL: Silt Loam; SiCL: Silt Clay Loam

Table 3. Mineral contents (%) in the <2 mm clay fraction of soil samples

Depth Minerals a
Location
(cm) Mc Ch Vt Kt Qr Gt Fd
1 40-60 42 14 6 26 8 2 2
2 20-40 40 12 6 29 8 2 3
3 0-20 45 14 7 20 9 2 2

3.
 a
Mc: Mica; Ch: Chlorite; Vt: Vermiculite; Kt: Kaolinite; Qr: Quartz; Gt: Goethite; Fd: Feldspar

Table 4. Total heavy metal concentration of agricultural soil (mg kg-1)

Location Depth (cm) Cd Cr Cu Ni Pb Zn

0-20 4.5 190 230 80 145 263
1 20-40 4.0 190 200 59 138 190
40-60 4.1 172 195 65 135 195
0-20 4.0 170 218 74 130 255
2 20-40 4.0 178 185 56 132 183
40-60 3.7 145 170 58 126 182
0-20 3.9 185 208 45 125 187
3
20-40 3.9 172 162 42 120 178
BGLa 0.16 62 73 34 32 115
TCVNb 2 50 70 200
a
Back ground levels of heavy metals in agricultural soils of Tu Liem district of Hanoi, Vietnam (Ho et al..1998)
b
Vietnamese standard for agricultural soils 7209-2002

Figure 2. Heavy metal extracted via SSE from soil samples

Heavy Metal Association with Soil Fractions
The distribution of heavy metals in soil profiles is
continuously altered by both anthropogenic activities and
natural turnover in rock-soil-plant systems. Heavy metals in
soils exist in different chemical forms or types of binding. In
environmental studies, the determination of these forms gives
more information on heavy metals mobility, as well as on their
availability and toxicity, in comparison to the total element
content. Heavy metals are associated with various soil
components in different forms, and these associations have
been indicated to affect the mobility of metals in the soil as
well as their bioavailability (Ahumada et al. 1999). Water
soluble heavy metals and those retained through exchangeable
phases exhibit high mobility and are readily taken up by crop
plants. The mobility and bioavailability of metals precipitated
with carbonates, occluded in Fe-Mn oxides or complexed with
organic matter depend on the physical and chemical properties
of the soil (Rubio et al. 1994).
The heavy metals retained through different phases
were identified for eleven soil samples in Table 2 using
selective sequential extraction (SSE). The results obtained are
presented in Fig. 2 for various heavy metals. The relative
proportion of heavy metal associated with six phases was
different by the type of metals, but was similar for all soil
samples. Dominant fractions were oxide, organic and residual
for Ni, Zn and Pb, oxide and organic for Cr, oxide for Cd, and
organic for Cu. The proportion of water-soluble, exchangeable
and carbonate fractions was much smaller than other fractions
for all heavy metals.
4.
Potential Leachability of Heavy Metals
The potential release of heavy metals from the soil due to
changes in water and soil environment was assessed using the
batch leaching tests. Weak acid and strong complexant
solutions are commonly used to determine trace-metal
mobility in sediments (Sahuquillo, 2003). In our tests, nitric
and acetic acid solutions (pH 4) and EDTA solution were
used as weak acid and a complexing agent, respectively. For
the assessment of heavy metal release from the soil samples,
the repeated washings (5 times) of the samples with above
solutions, based on the batch leaching tests, were employed.
Figure 3 shows the change in the leached metal concentration
with the number of washing for the soil sample No.1 in Table
2. The leached concentrations of all metals increased
substantially with increasing the number of washing for all
solutions. The leached metal concentration after five
washings was in the order: Cr > Ni > Pb > Cu > Zn > Cd for
all solutions. The EDTA treatment gave higher leached metal
concentration than the water and acid treatments. After five
washings, the leached metal concentration reached almost a
plateau for Cd, Zn, Cu, Pb and Ni while still tended to
increase for Cr. The leaching tests with repeated washings
were also conducted on the soil samples other than the soil
sample No.1 in Table 2, and similar results were obtained (not
shown here).
The leached heavy metal concentration thus
determined for all soil samples were plotted against the total
metal concentration for the respective leaching solutions (Fig.
4). The treatments with water, nitric acid, and acetic acid
exhibited similar patterns; for most metals, the leached metal
concentration was almost constant for the change in the total
metal concentration. The EDTA treatment gave higher leached
concentrations than other treatments.

Figure 3. Changes in the concentration of leached heavy metals by repeated washings with
de-ionized water and the solutions of nitric acid, acetic acid and EDTA
Leached m etal co n cen tratio n

Leached m etal concentration

80 80
H2O Cd Ni HNO 3
Cr Pb
60 Cu Zn 60
( m g /k g )

(m g/kg)

40 40

20 20

0 0
0 100 200 300 0 100 200 300
Total metal concentration (mg/kg) Total metal concentration (mg/kg)

80 150
Leached metal concentration
Leached metal concentration

CH3COOH EDTA
60
100
( mg/kg)
( mg/kg)

40

50
20

0 0
0 100 200 300 0 100 200 300
Total metal concentration (mg/kg) Total metal concentration (mg/kg)

Figure 4. Correlation between total heavy metal concentration in the soil and the concentration of
heavy metals leached with water, acid and EDTA solutions.

Figure 5. Average percentage of the respective heavy metal concentrations for each fraction of the soil
samples, the variation of metal concentration due to the sampling sites is also indication

5.
Figure 6. Comparison of leached metal concentration for different treatments with sequentially fractionated heavy metal concentration in soil samples.
The ratio of the leached metal concentration to the total metal
concentration in Fig. 4 could be a useful index for the
leachability of heavy metals in the soil. The ratio was obtained
for the plotted data of the respective heavy metals, and the
average of the ratio was calculated. Figure 5 shows the
average of the ratio for the respective heavy metals and
leaching solutions. The ratio decreased in the order: Cd > Ni >
Cr > Pb > Cu > Zn for the treatment with water, nitric and
acetic acid, and in the order: Cd > Ni > Cr > Zn > Cu > Pb for
the EDTA treatment. The bar in the figure indicates the range
of the ratio for all soil samples. The EDTA treatment gave
higher leachability than other treatments for most metal types.
This can be explained by the fact that EDTA possesses high
complexing capability, and extracts higher amount of metals
in organically- and oxide-bound fractions compared to water
and acid solutions (Fig. 6). The ability of this chelant to bind
metal ions in extremely stable complexes can be utilized not
only for desorption of sorbed ions, but for the dissolution of
insoluble metal compounds as well (Palma and Ferratelli,
2005). Wu et al. (2003) also found that EDTA may have
chelated with Cu and Zn and then enhanced the mobility of
soil metals in the long term and caused significant leaching.
Fractionated Heavy Metals and Potential Leachability
As described previously, the heavy metal leaching by repeated
washings with water, acid and EDTA solutions is capable of
releasing metals retained through exchangeable, carbonate,
oxide and organic phases. In order to examine the extent of
heavy metal leaching from these phases, the concentrations of
leached metals with different solutions were compared with the
sequentially fractionated heavy metal concentrations (Fig. 2) in
Fig.6. The figure represents the average of heavy metal
concentrations of all soil samples. For Cd, Cr, Ni and Pb, the
water and acid treatments gave similar leachability: Cd and Ni
were released fully from the exchangeable, carbonate and oxide
fractions, and partly from the organic fraction; Cr, Cu and Pb
were fully from the exchangeable and carbonate fractions, and
partly from the oxide fraction, and Zn was fully from the
exchangeable fraction by water and acid treatments. The EDTA
treatment gave similar results for Cd, Cr, Ni and Pb, but
REFERENCES
6.
additional release from the organic fraction for Cu and from the
carbonate and oxide fractions for Zn. Less leachability for Pb
and Cu is consistent with the findings that Pb and Cu are
strongly retained by iron-oxides and organic matter (Brummer,
1986; Livens, 1991).
These results suggest that the heavy metals retained through
the phases other than water-soluble can be released, and the
heavy metals taken up by crop plants is enhanced when the
paddy soil is exposed continuously to irrigation water. The
bioavailability of heavy metals retained through various
phases generally decreases in the order: water soluble >
exchangeable > carbonate > oxides > organic > residual, and
the heavy metals in the water soluble, exchangeable and
carbonate fractions exhibit high mobility and bioavailability
(Kashem and Sing, 2001).
CONCLUSION
The results obtained are summarized in the following.
The concentrations of Cd, Cu and Pb in the soil exceeded the
permissible level of Vietnamese standard for agricultural soil
In SSE analysis, dominant fractions were oxide, organic and
residual for Ni, Pb and Zn, organic and oxide for Cr, oxide for
Cd, and organic for Cu. The proportion of water-soluble,
exchangeable and carbonate fractions was much smaller than
other fractions for all metals
The ratio of the leached heavy metal concentration to the total
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> Cu > Zn for the treatment with water, nitric and acetic acid,
and in the order: Cd > Ni > Cr > Zn > Cu > Pb for the EDTA
treatment. The EDTA treatment gave higher leachability than
other treatments for most metal types.
By the leaching tests with water, acid and EDTA,
heavy metals were released fully or partially from the
exchangeable, carbonate, oxide and organic fractions in the
soil samples.
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