The Influence of Sedimentation Ponds of the Former Soda “Solvay” Plant in Krakow on the Chemistry of the Wilga River

Justyna Likus-Cieślik and Marcin Pietrzykowski
Additional contact information
Justyna Likus-Cieślik: Department of Forest Ecology and Silviculture, Faculty of Forestry, University of Agriculture in Krakow, al. 29 Listopada 46, 31-425 Krakow, Poland
Marcin Pietrzykowski: Department of Forest Ecology and Silviculture, Faculty of Forestry, University of Agriculture in Krakow, al. 29 Listopada 46, 31-425 Krakow, Poland

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 2, 1-12

Abstract: This paper explores how the chemistry of the Wilga River is affected by the sedimentation ponds at the former Soda “Solvay” Plant in Krakow. Despite the revitalization of the sedimentation ponds about 30 years ago, the chemistry of the samples was characterized by high EC (from 845 to 3000 µS cm −1 ), high concentration of Cl − (up to 800 mg L −1 ), Ca (up to 270 mg L −1 ), and SO 4 2− (up to 115 mg L −1 ), and a high value for Na (up to 270 mg L −1 ) was noted—surface water quality standards were exceeded. The effect of high mineralization by those elements, generated in wastewater during soda waste production, were noted to have seasonal and vertical variability. We concluded that, despite the industrial shutdown and revitalization processes, the drainage of industrial water can have serious and long-term negative effects on quality of water and the Wilga River ecosystem. The Wilga River is one of the most important examples of important environmental problems in urban areas.

Keywords: water salinity; water contamination; soda ash chemistry of river; urban area (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/2/993/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/2/993/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:2:p:993-:d:483215

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().