Abstract
A paucity of literature currently exists pertaining to the high-resolution geographic distribution of metal contaminants across urban areas. Thousands of soil samples were collected across Syracuse, NY to secure empirical evidence about such geographic distributions. Metal measurements were made with XRF technology, with quality assessments based upon replicate samples as well as ICP technology summarized here. Both metal covariations and their spatial structure are described, followed by map** of selected metal measurements based upon sample points, as well as census block group and census tract aggregates. A simple comparison is presented between certain of these empirical results and a selected non-urban landscape (a river floodplain). Finally, implications drawn from the empirical evidence presented include covariation assessments with selected census data that serve as surrogates for poverty.
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Notes
Background levels in ppm for the entire US are: 0–97 for As; near zero for cadmium (it occurs as the principal constituent of a mineral only in the rare greenockite); irrelevant for benign Cr, which becomes toxic when converted to its hexavalent form; and, merely traces for Hg, which constitutes only 0.5 ppm of the earth’s crust.
Soil samples were collected from residential yards, whereas dust samples were collected from the associated house interiors. Data collection consistency was achieved with a standard protocol for each. Both were collected from surfaces.
Hg and Se detection limits were imputed with an EM algorithm from tabulated findings reported by NITON Corporation (Walsh 2004, p. 4).
Fe, Zn, and Zr were measured using various ICP protocols, with a scatterplot included here for only the one yielding the strongest covariation for each of these heavy metals.
Soil samples were collected only from census blocks containing residences; according to the 2000 US Census, 447 blocks had no residents, and another 524 had 50 or fewer residents. The Syracuse University IRB required formal head-of-household permission (permission statements had to be signed and dated); some residents and some landlords refused permission. In addition, several parts of the city were sparsely sampled in order to ensure the safety of student fieldworkers.
This relationship most likely is because Pb and Zn are present in house paint of varying age. Also, Zn released by tire wear tends to be present in higher levels in soils in longer inhabited parts of a city with a history of vehicular traffic flow.
We feel that the Rb XRF data should be interpreted with caution. Although the XRF Rb measurements obtained with SRMs 2711, 2710, and 2709 were within 10% of the certified values, the lack of correlation between the XRF data and the ICP results for Rb (Fig. 2) suggests the presence of some unknown level of uncertainty in the Syracuse soil XRF Rb dataset. However, our results do demonstrate the utility of data verification using other methods for elements not routinely analyzed by a specific method. Meanwhile, the likelihood that Zr is geogenic in origin suggests that its distribution should reflect variations in concentration in the original soil forming parent material (i.e., in Syracuse glacial deposits), or in types of soil imported as fill. Any relationship between age of property requires further investigation.
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Acknowledgments
Daniel A. Griffith is an Ashbel Smith Professor of Geospatial Information Sciences. Data preparation work by Mr. Marco Millones, Mr. Matthew Vincent, and Ms. Keeley Roth, then all of the University of Miami, and analytical work by Mr. Jeff Hager and Ms. Debra Driscoll of SUNY ESF, is gratefully acknowledged. This research was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant #BCS-0552588.
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Griffith, D.A., Johnson, D.L. & Hunt, A. The geographic distribution of metals in urban soils: the case of Syracuse, NY. GeoJournal 74, 275–291 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-008-9233-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-008-9233-x