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Oral

Environmental

Heavy Metal Contamination in the Mahoning River, Ohio, USA

Monday, May 19, 2025
10:00 AM – 10:15 AM Alaska Daylight Time (AKDT)
Room: Room 7 & 8
Abstract Submission: The Mahoning River, historically one of the most contaminated rivers in the U.S., contains heavy metals above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's aquatic criteria. This study identifies the contamination levels, spatial patterns, and bioaccessibility of heavy metals (As, Ba, Fe, Pb, Ni, Zn) in the water and sediment of the lower Mahoning River. The contamination factor indicated that heavy metals in water were unpolluted ( < 1), whereas the sediment was moderately to highly polluted (3-15). Inverse distance weighting in sediments showed decreasing concentrations of Ni towards downstream, while concentrations of As, Ba, Fe, Pb, and Zn increased towards downstream. The inverse distance weighting patterns may be linked to land use, as the river traverses the agricultural region upstream, the urbanized region downstream, and mixed-land areas in the final downstream stretch of the river. Speciation analysis revealed that heavy metals in both water and sediments were primarily in divalent forms (HM2+), except Pb which was present as PbOH+, and PbCO3, indicating high bioaccessibility and potential for plant uptake in the aquatic environment.

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