URBAN ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY MONITORING PROJECT IN JERSEY CITY, NJ

Medical geology gives special emphasis to urban environmental settings; especially in light that the world’s population increasingly resides in such areas. The primary aim of this project is to introduce the key concepts of medical geology to undergraduate research students while monitoring spatial and temporal variations of selected elements, including As, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb, Ti and Zn, around the New Jersey City University campus. Major goals are to establish a database for future investigations, especially evaluating the impacts of extreme weather events, and to evaluate the surface environmental quality of the region by using the distribution and dispersion of heavy metal concentrations in urban soils. Chemical datasets obtained by using a portable-XRF are coupled with their particle size distributions. Samples collected pre- and post-Superstorm Sandy from the same urban settings (parks) revealed no statistically noticeable variation in heavy metal concentrations. However, urban soil samples collected from residential settings (backyards) displayed significantly higher levels of Pb concentration (1394 ± 670 ppm) compared to those from nearby urban parks (349 ±146 ppm). Pb-isotopic signatures of the selected samples reveal a wide range of contaminant sources including re-suspended leaded petrol, coal and leaded paint used in indoor and outdoor facilities.