CHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF URBAN LAKE WATER AND SOIL IN NEW YORK CITY

Balance is important for any sort of organism to survive. When there is an imbalance in the natural composition, it can cause imbalance in the organism's life that are living or somehow related to that particular environment. As the human activities are constantly contaminating the environment, the chance of imbalance is getting higher. In many cases we are disposing hazardous waste into the environment without any proper treatment. These hazardous elements are threatening the wild life as well as the human health and activities. The concentration of pollution in our environment depends on both the amount of pollution produced and the rate at which pollutants disperse. Although the pollution is increasing at an alarming rate, a little has been done to solve this problem.

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) set forth a framework for the management of non-hazardous solid wastes. The study is researching on two of the city parks in Queens: 1) Flushing Meadows Corona Park and 2) the Kissena Park. The study is to perform several tests on the chemical and physical condition and to figure out concentration of some essential elements and RCRA elements of the soil and the water. The sections were categorized into bulk (<2 mm) and fine (<0.25 mm) from each core were analyzed for a suite of elements particularly focused on EPA RCRA elements by using handheld XRF (x-ray fluorescence spectrometry). NIST 2702 was run with each batch of 10 sections and was ± 3% within the reported value. The preliminary data showed wide distribution of chemical elements in the samples. These physical and chemical properties of soils and water are very critical to provide additional strength to existing environmental data and thus to help assessing and managing the current pollution problem and contaminant transport in lake environment of New York City. The study also investigate the nutrients content of the soils.