EFFECTS ON MARINE ENVIRONMENT BY THE NON-RECYCLE BY-PRODUCTS OF FERRONICKEL SMELTING PLANT

The Euvoikos Gulf is a semi close embayment of the Aegean Sea located between the eastem coast of the Greek mainland and the westem coast of Evia Island. A fenonickel smelting plant (founded in 1963) exu·acts Fe and Ni from laterite ore. Dming the smelting process it producesen01mous quantities of slag as by-product which is dumped in area defined by the Govemment. Dumping was selected instead of use for sand blasting, asphalt, constlu ction materials or Nickel recovery etc as the more economical solution. The aim of this study is to defme the impact ofslag on the marine environment where the dumping takes place. Five stations in the Gulf (dumping m·ea) and seven stations around the smelting plant were selected. Water samples were taken in different seasons dming two years. Heavy metals concenu·ations such as Zn, Cu, Mn andNi both in dissolved and pmticulate phase were determined by atomic absorption. Results have been compared with the Greek concenu·ations of u·ace metals in seawater and US EPA acute and chronic exposme criteria. Slightly elevated concenu·ations of some metals were found in the stations that are considered to be more affected

EFFECTS ON MARINE ENVIRONMENT BY THE NON-RECYCLE BY-PRODUCTS OF FERRONICKEL SMELTING PLANT Keywords:

heavy metals , dissolved metals , particulate metals , smelting plant