Affiliations: Marine Ecosystem Research Centre, School of
Environmental & Natural Resource Sciences, Faculty of Science &
Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor,
Malaysia | Malaysian Institute for Nuclear Technology Research
(MINT), Ministry of Science, Technology & Innovation, Bangi, 43000 Kajang,
Selangor, Malaysia
Abstract: The concentrations of trace elements such as Zn, Mn, Cu, Co, Pb, Cr,
Fe and Al in the interval of three cm were detected using the Atomic Absorption
Spectrometry in three sediment cores at Kapar coastal area, nearby the
coal-fired power plant. The range of these metals were 14.0 ± 1.37
– 58.1 ± 4.94 μgg^{-1} (Zn), 192 ± 13
– 350 ± 23 μgg^{-1} (Mn), 4.5 ± 0.53
– 12.4 ± 0.79 μgg^{-1} (Cu), 12.7 ±
0.35 – 40.4 ± 1.08 μgg^{-1} (Co), 14.5
± 0.22 – 59.1 ± 0.59 μgg^{-1} (Pb),
3.5 ± 0.11 – 15.6 ± 0.52 μgg^{-1}
(Cr), 0.84 ± 0.03 – 1.91 ± 0.06% (Fe) and 1.2 ± 0.00
– 5.2 ± 0.01% (Al) in dry weight, where Al is used to normalize
these metals in order to calculate the enrichment factors (EF). The EF values
obtained were in the range of 0.26 to 1.23 for all metals and not exceeded the
ratio of 1:3, which indicate that the equilibrium condition was due to the
origin of crust material or natural processes. This proves that Kapar coastal
was not affected by the contamination of heavy metals neither from the
coal-fired power plant operations nor the river discharges.
Keywords: Trace elements, enrichment factors, coal electric power plant
