Investigation of Subsurface Contamination due to Chromium from Tannery Effluent in Kasur District of Pakistan

The present study is conducted in the scenario of the tannery waste hazards in Kasur district of Pakistan where the tannery industry is considered as major cause of groundwater quality deterioration. Area focused in this research constitutes the surroundings of the effluent carrying drains near tannery units. This study includes soil explorations, groundwater monitoring and wastewater analysis in the research area so as to find out the contamination extent of chromium in subsurface. Initial groundwater monitoring exhibited chromium concentrations as high as 90 mg/L in the tannery area. Even groundwater sampling from monitoring wells installed in the adjacent areas of effluent carrying drains, showed concentrations up to 10.4 mg/L. Wastewater analysis of all the drains in the research area has evidenced potential risk of contaminant seepage into soil and groundwater as level of chromium in wastewater samples has reported to be immensely high and varies from 68 mg/L to 2,152 mg/L. However the 30 soil samples collected from two soil bores did not show any significant results as the maximum values obtained for hexavalent chromium for leaching and retained in soil are 0.02 mg/L and 8.1 mg/kg, respectively. These low concentrations of soil samples suggest that the soil contamination may not be a main environmental issue in the areas adjacent to the effluent carrying drains. The research concludes as possibility of direct interference of the tannery wastewater with groundwater through damaged structures and sewers.