Evaluation of the Ecological Risk for the Tunnel Drilling Waste of Tehran-Shomal Highway on Chaloos River

Drilling material from the tunnel of the Tehran-Shomal highway was estimated to be about 2.5 Million Cubic Meters by the project authorities. Sadly, from the beginning, the drilling materials had been deposited on the open space in the floodplain of the Chaloos river with slightest environmental considerations. During the previous years, weathering and leaching from the drilled materials besides the discharge of drain water from the tunnel had led to seriouse contaminations and the deterioration of the water quality of the Chaloos river. In this paper, the ecological risk of nonorganic pollutants due to drilled materials was investigated. The sampling was done from the excavated materials and river sediment in five different locations throughout a complete year. From the many pollutants, Nickel, Cadmium and Copper were chosen to be investigated. The results showed that almost 15 percent of the samples had a high degree of pollution, while 60 percent of them were clean and the other 25 percent included the highly contaminated ones. All samples were also estimated to have a low to high ecological risk.