Assessment of Trace and Major Elements in Donghu Lake Hubei Province, China

A study was undertaken to determine the major and trace elements in Donghu lake. The total concentrations of a large suite of elements (Al, As, B, Ba, Ca, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, P, S, Si, Sr, V, Zn) were determined using spectroscopic techniques. The concentrations of trace and major elements were measured in water samples collected from five locations of Donghu lake from May to October 2007. Since, the surface water is polluted by the discharge of municipal and industrial wastewaters, it is suffering lack of clean water in Donghu, although there is adequacy of total water resource. With the rapid growth of economy in the area, the water pollution seems getting more and more serious. Normally, self cleaning effect is one of the important functions of freshwater system, which some harms posed by pollutants can be alleviated in water. But the human activities decrease it greatly and as a result, the water quality declined, freshwater system eutrophicated and degraded. The variability observed within the water samples is closely connected to the sampling locations; hence, it is primarily a consequence of discharge influent. The trace element levels, in particular those of heavy metals are moderate suggesting an origin from anthropogenic contamination rather than from natural sources.