Cadmium and copper transport in alluvial soils in the Brazilian semiarid region: column percolation and modeling

ABSTRACT Regarding the Brazilian textile industry, part of the northeast region stands out as the second-largest textile manufacturing hub in the country. Despite its importance, this industrial activity has been bringing relevant environmental concerns regarding the disposal of textile effluents, especially from industrial laundries. This waste contains many chemicals and among them are various types of heavy metals. To assess environmental risks associated with heavy metals, pollutant transfer needs to be investigated. This study evaluated the retention and mobility of heavy metals Cd and Cu in alluvial soil, through soil column tests. The up-flow column percolation tests were performed using a nonreactive tracer (KBr) at a concentration of 0.3 mol L-1 and injecting a metallic solution containing Cu and Cd at 100 and 60 mg L-1, respectively. The injection flow rate was 0.75 mL min-1. The hydro-dispersive parameters were obtained by modeling the observed breakthrough curves with the convection-dispersion equation (CDE) and the two-region model, also referred to as the MIM (Mobile-IMmobile waters) model. The transport parameters were obtained from the two-site model (TSS). All elution curves were fitted to the models with the CXTFIT 2.0 program. The Two-Site Sorption Model was the best for the case studied, with R2 of 0.985 and 0.995 for Cu and Cd, respectively. The values of R were considerably higher than the unit, presenting an average of 2.138 for Cu and 1.907 for Cd. This indicates a delay of these contaminants when leaving the column, which is caused by the interaction of these chemical compounds with the soil. The values obtained for parameter D were 3.469 for Cu and 5.205 for Cd. Thus, the metals in this study present a risk of groundwater contamination for the local alluvial aquifers. The main reason for that is the physicochemical features of the soil, such as high sand content (85 %) and low OM content (2.1 %). The results also indicated greater retention and less mobility for Cu than for Cd, pointing to a greater risk for Cd.