Environmental Degradation of the Activities of Illegal Refineries on the Mangrove Ecosystem: A Case Study of Escravos and Environ, Delta State

Abstract

A study of the environmental degradation of the activities of illegal refineries on the mangrove ecosystem was carried out at Escravos the study area and its located in Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State and plays host to two major transnational oil companies Shell and Chevron. In achieving the study’s objective, samples of water and sediments were collected from both remediated and impacted sites to test for heavy metal, Total Petroleum Hydrocarbon (TPH) and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH). The extraction of TPH and PAH from soil was accomplished through the technique of Soxhlet method while the atomic-absorption spectrophotometry method was used to determine the presence of heavy metals. The study showed that TPH concentrations appears in the following order of RS1 > RS3 > RS2 > RS1 with the TPH in the impacted sediment were relatively higher than the values recorded for the remediated sediment. The order of abundance of metal concentration in this study is Fe > Zn >Mn>Pb> Cu > Cd and Ni. Data from this study further reveals that the net concentration of the metals investigated for both seasons show that all the metals investigated in the dry season are higher than those from the raining season. The concentrations of PAHs in this study were higher in the sediments than in the water samples.