Impact of Dissolved Metals(oids) in Surface Water Quality of the Almadén Mine District

Abstract: Waters from 10 sampling points in the streams of the Almad?n mine district were collected in the period 2010-2013 in order to study the potential impact caused by the input of Potentially Toxic or Harmful Elements (PTHE) from the decommissioned mines of the district in the freshwater environment and then the potential risk for the aquatic organism and to the resident population. Dissolved metals(oids) in surface waters were investigated byby different analytical techniques and the results were statistical evaluated using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The assessment of the potential risk for biota and humans using the Environmental Risk Index (ERI) and the Hazard quotient (HQ) has been made. Considering the different physico-chemical data together with their statistical multivariate treatment, the district displayed a significant metals load where the main PTHE (As, Co, Hg and Mn) may be attributed to the decommissioned mine sources. The amount of dissolved metals detected in the surface waters showed an ERI value of 11.64, corresponding to a poor environment where different metals(oids) may be transferred to the aquatic organisms. On the other hand, the assessment of the same metal load from the viewpoint of human consumption showed that the contents of Hg and As are potentially hazardous for the resident populations, where they can cause adverse health effects in sensitive populations such as children or babies.