Assessment of the potential environmental risks of technogenic components of modern river sediments

Abstract

The author considers approaches to an estimation of toxicity and potential ecological risk of the technogenic components in structure of river sediments of mining territories. We propose the use of an element lithotoxicity factor, which is accounted for by an additional multiplier to the ratio of the content of a single element in man-made components of sediments and its average content in the upper part of the continental earth's crust. The calculation of the final assessment of the potential environmental risk of anthropogenic components is carried out taking into account their stability coefficient. This coefficient can be their hardness according to the Mohs scale.