Source and distribution of Lead, Cadmium, Iron and Manganese in the river Damodar near Asansol Industrial Area, West Bengal, India

The present study deals with the characterization of industrial wastewater and its impact on water and sediment of river Damodar near Asansol industrial area. The objective of the study is to characterize the industrial wastewater, determination the heavy metal distribution in water and surface sediments of the analyzing river. The concentrations of lead (Pb) ranged 8.29–88.7, 22.59–204.42; manganese (Mn) 0.37–92.1, 57.25–345.86; iron (Fe) 342–3125, 246.35–3243.49; cadmium (Cd) 0.21–2.712, 0.235–1.653 (μg I⁻¹ and mg/kg) in water and sediment respectively. Measured concentrations of heavy metals in surface sediment were used to estimate the geochemical load indices and to study their spatial distribution. Various metal pollution indices has been applied to access the pollution load of different sampling sites. The levels of enrichment factors (EFs), geoaccumulation (Igeo) and Pollution load index (PLI) ranged 0.005–10.221, -8.167–2.769 and 0.158–0.684, respectively. Pollution load index (PLI) and index of geoaccumulation (lgeo) revealed overall low values but the enrichment factors (EFs) for Cd and Pb were high, and this reflects the intensity of anthropogenic inputs related to industrial discharge into the river system.