Assessment of mining activity on arsenic contamination in surface water and sediments in southwestern area of Santurbán paramo, Colombia.

The current emphasis of developing countries on policies that favor the intensification of mining exploitation as the main source of incomes, has generated negative consequences for ecosystems and rural communities, mainly due to the release of highly toxic elements into the environment. This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of the Vetas-California gold mining district on As distribution in stream sediments and surface water samples from Suratá River, located in the southwestern area of Santurbán paramo, Colombia. With this aim, samples distributed along the high Suratá River basin in areas near and far from mining areas were selected. Samples were chemically characterized. The As mobility, enrichment and sources were evaluated using sequential and single extractions, enrichment factor (EF), geoaccumulation index (I

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Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.