Heavy Metals Contamination of an Oil Spilled Site in Niger Delta, Nigeria.

ABSTRACT

 Crude oil spillage is a big threat to the soil fertility. Spillage occurs due to the pipeline rupture, and traffic accidents involving tankers. An investigation was carried  to assess the effects of crude oil spillage on the physicochemical properties of soil in Nnagi-Ama, Niger Delta Nigeria. For this purpose soil samples were collected in the Nnagi-Ama, tested in a laboratory, and compared to non-polluted (control) soil sample. The pH values of the soil samples remained almost the same. The electrical conductivity and Soil organic carbon increased. The concentration of the major cations when compared with the concentration found in the control soils were lower except for Ca (1.046±0.046), Na (0.286±0.0023) and K (0.180±0.000) at Location A which showed higher concentration for the control at the depth of 15 – 30 cm. Also, Location B showed higher concentration for Mg, Na and K for the control soil. The amounts of some heavy metals increased and decreased across the study area and were generally low. The inter-relationship or association between the metals showed close association between pH and Pb (0.53), Mg and Cu (0.889) and Ca and Ni (0.57) which showed strong correlation significance. Most metal pairs were positively correlated which is an indication that most metals have common contamination source. However, Cu showed negative correlation with EC, pH and Ca. Crude oil spillage phenomenon in Nangi-Ama should be stopped. Government needs to create a modern and professional environmental policy, and should strictly prevent the climatic disturbances.