Hazardous Effects of Cyprus Mining Corporation (CMC) and
Consumption Risks of Cress, Lettuce, Radish and Spinach Irrigated with the Water of
CMC Tailing Ponds
Şerife GÜNDÜZ, PhD
Near East University, Faculty of Education,
Northern Cyprus, Lefkoşa (via Mersin – Türkiye)
1. INTRODUCTION
Mining in Cyprus started in Copper Age (3000 B.C.) and was an important phenomenon during:
Phoenicians,
Greeks and
Romans.
“Copper” Cyprus
(Kurusakız and Uğur, 1999).
- Cyprus covers 9251 km
2- 32°17´ - 34°35´ east longitudes
- 34°33´ - 35°41´ north latitudes
CMC
1566 da
Cyprus Mining Corporation (CMC) was established in 1916 in Gemikonağı and processed the mine till 1974.
Produced major metals:
Copper (Cu),
Gold (Au),
Silver (Ag) and
Iron Pyrites (FeS 2 )
(Cohen, 2002).
In 1974, CMC closed the corporation and left all buildings, tailing ponds and other wastes face to face with the environment (Kurusakız and Uğur, 1999).
During the operations of CMC, wastes were
flowed into the sea and caused a big pollution in
the area (Cohen, 2002).
Additionally to the sea and soil pollutions, there are 12 tailing ponds and mine wastes which are flowing on the soil surface (Cohen, 2002).
These ponds are surrounded with
~9 m hills.
hills
Heavy metals which aren’t problem naturally for thousands of years are started to be problem
because of the negative effects of human beings.
They are threating cities, agricultural areas and the natural environment (Robinson, 1997).
Heavy metals, such as; Arsenic, Lead, Copper,
Cadmium and Nickel, are extremely toxic in very
small amounts and are found in CMC area.
To determine the heavy metal accumulations of:
Lepidum sativum L. spp. sativum (cress),
Spinacia oleraceae L. (spinach),
Raphanus sativus L. var. niger (radish) and
Lactuca sativa L. convar. sativa (lettuce).
which are being planted around and inside the CMC area.
AIM
Selected test plants are belonging to the plant families which includes at least one hyper
accumulator plant species (Robinson, 1997; Baker et al ., 2000).
2. MATERIALS AND METHODS
20 seeds from each of
selected plant species
were firstly sowed into
violas filled with sandy-
soils (Pinto et al. , 1998)
in March 2003.
These plants were irrigated by the
water obtained from the tailing ponds
(#12, 14, and 17) of the CMC.
Waters from tailing ponds were applied to the plants with 1/1, 1/10, 1/100 and 1/1000
concentrations and the plants were also irrigated with normal water for control (Hinchman and
Negri, 1994).
The Complatelly Randomized Design were used
with 3 replications for each plant species with 13 treatments (different irrigation waters).
3 weeks later;
4 healthy plants were selected for each plant
species and treatments, then were transplanted
into plastic pots filled with 5 kg (Vysloužilová et
al. , 2003) sandy soils (Küpper et al ., 1999).
60 days later (Pinto et al. , 1998);
All plants were uprooted from the plastic pots
and were devided as below-ground and above-
ground. Thus, washed with pure water, placed
into nylon bags (Küpper et al. , 1999).
Plant samples were decomposed by Method 7300 (NIOSH, 2003) by using Nitric Acid (HNO 3 ) and Perchloric Acid (HClO 4 ).
Soil samples were decomposed by the Method
SW-846, 3050B (USEPA, 1996).
Concentrations of ten elements (As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Mo, Pb, Zn) in the digests of plants and soils were determined by Inductively
Coupled Plasma (ICP) (Fassel ve Kniseley, 1974;
NIOSH, 2003).
Table 1. Heavy Metal Concentrations (ppm) of Irrigation Waters
Irrigation
Water Arsenic Cadmium Cobalt Crom Copper
Control-H2O 0.001 0.001 0.001±0.0008 0.115±0.0334 0.002±0.0004 17-1/1 0.010 0.010 3.246±0.0667 0.882±0.2180 26.97±0.348 14-1/1 0.010 0.010 38.16±0.215 21.81±0.613 676.50±3.200 12-1/1 0.010 0.010 31.48±0.208 56.18±10.61 299.60±1.450
Irrigation
Water Iron Manganese Molybdeniu
m Lead Zinc
Control-H2O 0.076±0.0326 1.000 0.001 0.011±0.0046 1.000
17-1/1 780.50±3.705 5.26±0.139 0.010 0.606±0.0371 6.89±0.0730 14-1/1 13280±149.2 84.13±1.188 0.010 3.603±0.5633 102.0±0.612 12-1/1 22530±313.0 41.00±0.300 0.010 5.995±0.2850 72.57±0.387
±stdev
