Impact of industrial effluents on ground water and soil quality in the vicinity of industrial area of Panipat city, India

The present paper is aimed towards the assessment of heavy metal contamination of agricultural soil due to irrigation with contaminated ground water affected by textile industrial effluents at Panipat city in India. Samples of ground water and irrigated soils from textile industrial area were analyzed for various heavy metals, viz. Mn, Ni, Fe, Cu, Cd, Pb and Zn, using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry. Metal transfer factors from ground water to irrigated agricultural soil and from soil to ground water were calculated for heavy metals. The findings deal with the distribution of heavy metals in ground water of industrial area and irrigated agricultural soil. Transfer factors for heavy metals from effluent to ground water were observed to be 0.436, 1.180, 6.461, 2.401, 2.790, 3.178 and 0.634 for Cd, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn respectively. These were found to be very high from ground water to agriculture soil due to the natural shale value of heavy metals in soil system. Thus, untreated industrial effluents can cause an environmental threat to ground water resources and affects soil quality and agricultural plant productivity