Fate of hazardous elements in agricultural soils surrounding a coal power plant complex from Santa Catarina (Brazil)

Hazard element contamination coming from coal power plants is something obvious, but when this contamination is accompanied by other contamination sources, such as, urban, coal mining and farming activities the study gets complicated. This is the case of an area comprised in the southern part of Santa Catarina state (Brazil) with the largest private power plant generator. After the elemental analysis of 41 agricultural soils collected in an extensive area around the thermoelectric (from 0 to 47 km), the high presence of As, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Mo, Pb, Sb, Sn, Tl, V and Zn was found in some specific areas around the power plant Nevertheless, as the NWAC (Normalized-and-Weighted Average Concentration) confirmed, only soils from one site were classified as of very high concern due to the presence of potential toxic elements. This site was located within the sedimentation basin of the power plant. The spatial distribution obtained by kriging in combination with the analysis of the data by Principal Component Analysis (PCA) revealed three important hotspots in the area according to soil uses and geographic localization: the thermoelectric, its area of influence due to volatile compound deposition, and the area comprised between two urban areas. Farming practice turn out to be an important factor too for the quantity of hazard element stored in soils. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.