Author(s)

Nadine NASSIF, Ziad SAADE

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Ensuring the environmental protection of the Lebanese coast requires a continues monitoring system. For this purpose, four heavy metals (Fe, Mn, Cu and Pb in the marine sediments along the Lebanese coast were selected for analysis Sampling was carried out from two sites: Beirut and Batroun. Thus, 1g of dried sample is used for digestion by wet mineralization in order to determine the concentration of the four heavy metals by atomic absorption spectrometry. The results showed that Beirut area is polluted, by Fe and Mn as well as the station Bat 2 of Batroun. For Cu and Pb, Batroun region is more polluted in the superficial layers. The analysis also showed significant difference between the sites except for Cu. A difference between depths and between particles size fractions are observed for all the parameters studied. There is no a significant difference in layer sequence except for the Pb, and neither between the repetitions of the same sample. Results showed that the values of the four metals studied do not exceed the maximum limits at both sites, but they showed increase in comparison with the analyses obtained before July 2006 conflict, which was caused by the release of large quantity of fuel-oil from Jiyeh Power Station.

Pollution, Sediments, Heavy metals, Coast, Lebanon

N. NASSIF and Z. SAADE, "Studying Heavy Metals in Sediments Layers along Selected Sites on the Lebanese Coast," Journal of Water Resource and Protection, Vol. 2 No. 1, 2010, pp. 48-60. doi: 10.4236/jwarp.2010.21006.