Metal concentrations in river water and bed sediments of the Lower Litani River Bassin, Lebanon

Authors

  • Nada Nehme MCEMA Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences I, EDST, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon. And Faculty of Agriculture, Lebanese University, Beirut
  • Chaden Haydar MCEMA Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences I, EDST, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon. And Faculty of Agriculture, Lebanese University, Beirut
  • Bachar Koubeissy MCEMA Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences I, EDST, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon. And Faculty of Agriculture, Lebanese University, Beirut
  • Mohamad Fakih MCEMA Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences I, EDST, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon. And Faculty of Agriculture, Lebanese University, Beirut
  • Sadek Awad MCEMA Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences I, EDST, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon. And Faculty of Agriculture, Lebanese University, Beirut
  • Joumana Toufaily MCEMA Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences I, EDST, Lebanese University and School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, WSU, Pullman, WA 99164
  • Frederic Villieras Laboratoires Environnement et Minéralurgie, LEM, Nancy, France, UMR756
  • Tayssir Hamieh MCEMA Laboratory - PRASE, EDST, Lebanese university

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24297/jac.v8i2.4040

Keywords:

Litani River, water, sediment, zinc, contamination, seasonal variations.

Abstract

The distribution of pollutants in the Litani River is almost severe. It resulted from domestic, sewage, agricultural and industrial sources. In this study, the distribution of metals (Cu, Fe, Cd, Mg, Zn, Pb , Al, Ba, Ni, Mn, Ag and Cr) were measured in river water and the bed sediments of the Lower Litani River Basin (LLRB). The impacts of metals on the water quality were monitored during the rainy, mid rainy and dry season in the year 2012. The objectives of this study were first to identify possible sources of metals (i.e. geological and/or anthropogenic) and then to characterize the chemical behavior of these metals in water and bed sediments. Water and bed load sediments were sampled at six sites along the LLRB main watercourse, The metal concentrations in the river sediments were remarkably high, but varied between different sampling sites, and the concentrations in water were mainly within the permissible limits. The metal contents in bed sediment were highest during closure of summer period. By applying the principal component analysis applied to total and extractable metal contents as a tool for studying metal pollution in the LLRB, it was useful to distinguish between anthropogenic and natural sources.

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Author Biographies

Nada Nehme, MCEMA Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences I, EDST, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon. And Faculty of Agriculture, Lebanese University, Beirut

She is an engineer in agricultural sciences and PHD student

Chaden Haydar, MCEMA Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences I, EDST, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon. And Faculty of Agriculture, Lebanese University, Beirut

She is an engineer in agricultural sciences and PHD student

Bachar Koubeissy, MCEMA Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences I, EDST, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon. And Faculty of Agriculture, Lebanese University, Beirut

Dr. Bachar KOUBAISSY, (born 1981), Associate professor at Lebanese University since 2008. He obtained his PhD in catalysis and environment-chemistry in 2007 at University of Poitiers and completed his education with a post-doctoral position at LMSPC Strasbourg- France, in the Laboratory of Professor A. Kiennemann. Bachar KOUBAISSY’s research activities concern the Catalysts preparation, the adsorption phenomena, more precisely the treatment of water by sorption over micro- and meso-porous materials, regenerated and efficient materials, and the Reforming reactions over perovskite and fluorite structure in order to produce H2. So his study concern the roles of materials in environment sciences. References: He is author of 10 publications in international scientific journals and has 13 oral communications in international scientific congresses.

Mohamad Fakih, MCEMA Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences I, EDST, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon. And Faculty of Agriculture, Lebanese University, Beirut

Dr. Mohamad FAKIH, (born 1984), Associate professor at Lebanese University since 2009. He obtained his PhD in environment-chemistry in 2009 at University of ParisXI. Dr FAKIH’s research activities concern the Biochemistry, water sciences. He is author of 6 publications in international scientific journals and has 10 oral communications in international scientific conferences.

Sadek Awad, MCEMA Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences I, EDST, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon. And Faculty of Agriculture, Lebanese University, Beirut

Dr. Sadek AWAD, (born 1979), Associate professor at Lebanese University since 2008. He obtained his PhD in environment-chemistry and geological sciences in 2002 at University of ParisXI. Dr AWAD’s research activities concern the Biochemistry, water sciences. He is author of 12 publications in international scientific journals and has 15 oral communications in international scientific conferences.

Joumana Toufaily, MCEMA Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences I, EDST, Lebanese University and School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, WSU, Pullman, WA 99164

Dr. Joumana Toufaily, (born 1974), full professor at Lebanese University since 2007 in the field of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry of Materials. She is Coordinator of the Master 2 Research: Physical Chemistry, Materials and Catalysis and Coordinator of the Laboratory of Materials, Catalysis, Environment and Analytical Methods (MCEMA), Lebanese University, Lebanon. Education: She has obtained her PhD in Physico-Chemical domain in 2002 in UHA. After this, she was Post-doc at the Laboratory of Catalysis in Organic Chemistry (LACCO), ESIP, Poitiers, France. Research field: Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Materials, Nanoscience-Nanotechnology, Sol-gel Chemistry, Self-assembly, Nanostructuration, In-situ and post-synthesis functionalization, Heterogeneous catalysis, Environment. She is Director of 2 PhD students, Co-Director of 10 PhD students and Director of 24 master’s degree thesis. References: She is co-author of 30 publications in international scientific journals and 37 communications in the area of elaboration, characterisation and application of of solid organic-inorganic hybrid materials.

Frederic Villieras, Laboratoires Environnement et Minéralurgie, LEM, Nancy, France, UMR756

Frédéric Villiéras, (born 1964), is Research Director at CNRS (LEM-INPL) in the field of surface chemistry and transfers in geological materials. He acquired an expertise in mineralogy and surface during is PhD in LEM and a Marie Curie Grant inLouvain-La-NeuveUniversity. His main research activity concerns the study of the relationships between structural properties, chemistry and surface reactivity. He developed high resolution experimental equipments based on the molecular probe technique at very low pressure (or concentration) to study the surface heterogeneities of natural sold surfaces in order to derive morphology of small crystallized particles and surface reactivity at solid/gas and solid/liquid interfaces. Experimental data are analyzed by a modelling technique developed in LEM to take advantage of the high resolution equipments using theoretical concepts of adsorption derived from statistical thermodynamics: derivative isotherm summation (DIS) modelling.He is the author or co-author of about 115 publications in international Journals, and about 100 communications at international conferences (amongst which about 10 invited talks). He has obtained several research prices (Prix HAUY for is PhD thesis in 1993; The President of Maria Curie-Sklodowska Award in 1999 with Prof Rudzinski’s research team – Lublin-Poland; 2nd Research price of Lorrain Region in 2004). He has been coordinator of several national and international (Poland, Portugal, NIS research teams) projects granted by CNRS, INTAS (00-505, EC), CMEP (Algery), CEDRE (Libanon), CORUS (Cameroon)…   devoted to theoretical and applied aspects of mineralogy, surface chemistry, and surface heterogeneity of solids. He has supervised 13 PhD students and about 15 master students. Frederic Villieras is member of the scientific committee of CSM7 (20-22/05/2010,Beirut).He is since 2009 the director of the the “Water-soil-Earth†laboratory federation (FR-EST / 8 reasearch laboratories; 450 persons).

Tayssir Hamieh, MCEMA Laboratory - PRASE, EDST, Lebanese university

Prof. Tayssir HAMIEH (born 1955), He was the Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture (Lebanese University, from 2008 to 2014), full Professor at the Lebanese University since 1996, He was Professor at the University of Haute-Alsace (Mulhouse – France) until 2000, Visiting professor (1998) in University of Alberta, Canada. He obtained his first PhD in Physical Chemistry (1985), his HDR (1996) and obtained in 2001 his second Ph.D. in Mathematics from UHA. He published more than 250 Papers in Specialized Journals and international conferences. Prof. Hamieh also served on many academic and administrative responsibilities and Coordinator and Editor of huit international conferences on Materials Sciences (CSM) held in Beirut in 1996, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2012; Editor of Journal of Physique IV, Volume 124, EDP Sciences, France, 2005; and Editor of Physics Procedia (CSM7).

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Published

2012-12-20

How to Cite

Nehme, N., Haydar, C., Koubeissy, B., Fakih, M., Awad, S., Toufaily, J., Villieras, F., & Hamieh, T. (2012). Metal concentrations in river water and bed sediments of the Lower Litani River Bassin, Lebanon. JOURNAL OF ADVANCES IN CHEMISTRY, 8(2), 1590–1601. https://doi.org/10.24297/jac.v8i2.4040

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 2 (2014)

Section

Articles

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