Evaluation of Heavy Metal Pollution in the Vicinity of the Shnokh River by the Geoaccumulation Index

Abstract The geoaccumulation and pollution indices calculated based on the results of monitoring the river water and the soil adjacent to the tailing area of the Teghut copper–molybdenum combine during its operation (autumn, 2016) and after shutdown (autumn, 2018) are reported. The trends in the concentrations of some heavy metals (Mo, Zn, and Cu) in the water of the Shnokh river and its shore soil in the vicinity of the tailing dump of the enterprise were studied. The resulting data were used to classify the studied soil by the degree of pollution in terms of the heavy metal geoaccumulation index.