Evaluation of Sediment Contamination and Effectiveness of Dredging in Mid-to-lower Han River

Abstract

The Han River, which is the largest river in Korea, is the primary source of drinking water for the 20 million people that live in the Seoul metropolitan and surrounding areas. The sediments in the river are highly polluted due to pollutant inputs from upstream tributaries as well as from partially treated municipal wastewaters. To characterize the contamination of the sediments, disturbed and undisturbed sediment samples were periodically collected from eight locations of the mid-to-lower Han River. They were analyzed for pH, water content, total solids, ignition loss (IL), total phosphorous (TP), total Kjehldahl nitrogen (TKN), and chemical oxygen demand (COD). The mean values of pollutant concentrations in disturbed sediment were determined to be 6.9% for IL, 1,700 mg/kg for TP, 3,350 mg/kg for TKN, and 65,710 mg/kg for COD. Pollutant concentrations of undisturbed samples were found to decrease with sediment depth and time due to the removal mechanism. Monitoring of pre- and post-dredging conditions was also performed, and the results show that the pollutant concentrations decreased from those for the pre-dredging condition to 33-57% for TP, 51-64% for TKN, and 30-62% for COD. It is concluded that dredging was an effective means to reduce the internal pollutant source.