Effects of Gas Flaring on Cassava Crop at Aggah-Egbema in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State

ABSTRACT

The current research investigated the bioavailability of gas flare pollutant fallouts in crop tissues via the soil repository matrix around the Aggah-Egbema Oil Flow Station in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State. Three sampling locations were established at 1, 2 and 10 km from the gas flare stack. Ambient air quality for SOx, NOx, COx, H2S, suspended particulate matter (SPM10), petroleum hydrocarbons, and trace metals (Cd, Cr, Pb, Mn, Va, Zn) were determined with High Volume Sampler and Digital Automatic Gas Monitors according to standard methods. Soil samples were collected with stainless auger, while cassava (Manihot esculenta) leaves and tubers were harvested and taken to the laboratory. Air, soil, and crop leaves and tuber samples were analyzed for trace metals concentrations with Varian Spectra AA 600 atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Descriptive statistics was employed in the presentation of ensuing data. The one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine equality in spatial mean variances in the matrices (air, soil, and crop leaves and tubers), while correlation (r) was used to investigate their relationships. The principal components analysis (PCA) was used for data reduction as to remove redundant variables from the data file. Cd, Cr and Pb concentrations varied from 0.010-0.050 (0.023 ± 0.005), 0.010-0.030 (0.014 ± 0.002) and 0.010-0.040 (0.019 ± 0.004) ppm in air samples. However, they ranged from 0.050-1.220 (0.462 ± 0.149), 0.210-0.420 (0.294 ± 0.026) and 0.020-0.080 (0.048 ± 0.008) mg/kg in soil samples. They ranged from 1.440-3.010 (2.099 ± 0.177), 0.710-1.100 (0.892 ± 0.044) and 0.040-1.005 (0.324 ± 0.132) μg/kg in leave samples and 2.300-5.000 (3.476 ± 0.336), 1.200-1.500 (1.342 ± 0.038) and 0.062-1.210 (0.446 ± 0.174) μg/kg in crop tubers. Pb concentrations in air samples correlated at PFcrit(3.93)]. Five PCs (pH/total N, Cd, Va, Zn, Pb) formed the extracted solution of the original variables and explained about 96% of the variability in the original 25 variables subjected to the PCA.