Assessment of agricultural soil metal pollution in Crocodile River (West) Catchment, South Africa

The contamination of ecosystems by toxic metals remains a public health and ecological concern. Anthropogenic pollution threatens many agricultural systems and the Crocodile River (West) Catchment is South Africa is under such threat. Dams such as Roodeplaat and Hartbeespoort found in this catchment are known to be highly contaminated by human activities taking place in and around them and water abstracted from these dams is used for agricultural purposes. The study aimed to determine the levels of toxic metals in agricultural soils collected from cropping fields from Roodeplaat and Hartbeespoort dam sites, asses the suitability of using such soils for agricultural purposes and also establish the possible contamination sources. Soil samples were collected from 4 cropping sites (2 located at Hartbeespoort and 2 at Roodeplaat Dam site) in June 2019, September 2019; February 2020 and March 2021 and water pH and anionic surfactants levels monitored in farm dams adjacent to the sampling stations. Soil samples were acid digested using the aqua-regia method and analysed for major, minor & trace elements combined using ICP-AES and ICP-MS.