Study on Heavy Metal Contamination from the Soot of Flared Gas on Selected Vegetation of Jeddo Community, Delta State, Nigeria (Published)
Soot is a black solid dispersed in air, which comes from the combustion of hydrocarbon molecules. From this study, some samples of Telfairia Occidentalis, local leaves (ugu) were collected from both Jeddo community (close to Warri Refinery and Petrochemical Company WRPC and other artisanal refineries) and Osubi Community (where there are no gas-flaring activities); all located in Okpe local government of Delta State, Nigeria. The vegetables were taken to the laboratory for analysis: to ascertain the level of heavy metal contamination from the soot that came from the gas-flaring and artisanal refineries in the area. From the result obtained, it was discovered that Zn, Cr, Cd and Pb in the vegetation had higher values above the WHO (1996) permissible limit, while Cu and Ni present in the vegetable, had values below the WHO permissible limit. This implies that soot from artisanal refineries had negative impact on the leafy vegetables (T. Occidentalis) in Jeddo community. These results then make the vegetation samples from Jeddo community unsafe for human consumption. The policies regulating the refineries should be enforced to achieve a safer atmosphere in the environment.
Citation: Obi-udu I, Uwadiegwu B.O., Okoye O.N.N., Onwuka S.U. (2022) Study on Heavy Metal Contamination from the Soot of Flared Gas on Selected Vegetation of Jeddo Community, Delta State, Nigeria, British Journal of Environmental Sciences, Vol.10, No.6, pp.,66-72
Keywords: Contamination, Gas-flaring, Heavy Metals, Nigeria, Vegetation, soot
Assessment of the Impact of Gas Flaring on the pH, Cd, Pb, Cu, Zn, Fe and Mn Concentrations in the Rainwaters of Jeddo Community, Delta State, Nigeria (Published)
This paper is focused on the possible impact of gas flaring on the pH, Cd, Pb, Cu, Zn, Fe, and Mn concentrations in the rainwaters of Jeddo community, Delta State, Nigeria. The Rainwater samples were collected from two locations in the community. The samples were then taken to the laboratory for analyses. The result for the pH for both samples of Rainwater 1 (R1) and Rainwater 2 (R2) (which are 6.20 and 6.00 respectively) showed that their pH did not comply with the acceptable limits of World Health Organization (WHO, 2003), National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA, 2011), Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR, 2002) and Nigerian Standard for Drinking Water Quality (NSDQW, 2007). The result also showed that Cd, Pb and Mn all complied with WHO (2003), NESREA (2011), DPR (2002) and NSDQW (2007) domestic/recreational water quality limits; while the values of Cu, Zn and Fe metals generally did not comply with the safety standards.
Keywords: Cd, Cu, Fe, Gas-flaring, Metals, Pb, Zn, and Mn, pH, rainwater
Mapping of land cover and estimation of their emissivity values for gas flaring sites in the Niger Delta (Published)
This study examines the changes in land cover (LC) types at 6 gas flaring sites in Rivers State, Niger Delta region of Nigeria; and to estimate their emissivity (Ɛ) values. 15 Landsat scenes (3 Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) and 12 Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+)) from 17 January 1986 to 08 March 2013 with < 30 % cloud contamination were used. All the sites are located within a single Landsat scene (Path 188, Row 057). Radiometric calibration of the multispectral bands of the data, and atmospheric correction for multispectral bands using dark object subtraction (DOS) method was carried out. The first unsupervised cluster analysis of the atmospherically corrected reflectance (bands 1-4) using the K-mean function of the MATLAB tool was carried out. The results obtained give 3 classes of LC type and cloud as the 4th class. The second cluster analysis was performed with the cloud-masked reflectance (bands 1-4) to give vegetation, soil, built up area and water LC types for all flaring sites. This was confirmed through the fieldwork observation for ground validation of Landsat 5 TM and Landsat 7 ETM+ in the Niger Delta that LC types obtained from satellite data are the same with those observed during the fieldwork. The method used to estimate Ɛ value for LC types at these sites is based on the Ɛ of 4 LC types present at each site. The changes in LC differ throughout the period for the 6 sites due to different human activities within each site. The Ɛ values estimated for the 4 LC types for the sites are not stable but changing from 1986 to 2013 due to changes in LC types. The results of LC classification show that K-mean method can distinguish up to 4 LC types very well in the Niger Delta.
Keywords: Estimation, Gas-flaring, Land Cover, Mapping, Niger-Delta, emissivity