Mercury (Hg) Distribution in Body of Water at Some Point Waiapu River Buru Island

Abstract

Mercury and its derivatives have long been known to be very toxic so that their presence in the aquatic environment can cause harm to humans because they are soluble and bound in the body tissues of aquatic organisms. Besides mercury pollution has an influence on the local ecosystem due to its stable nature in sediments, its low solubility in water and its youthfulness are absorbed and accumulates in the body tissues of aquatic organisms, both through the bioaccumulation process and biomagnification that is through the food chain. This research was conducted to determine the levels of heavy metal mercury (Hg) in the body of water from the Waiapu river Buru Island. This is very important to do because so far the river has traditionally been used as a waste disposal site for gold processing waste. The field research stage includes measurements of physical and chemical parameters and sampling taken in July 2015. River water samples are then sent to the Chemical Laboratory of Muhammadiyah University Malang for measuring mercury contents using AAS with a calibration curve technique. The results showed that the mercury levels in the three sample locations, namely A B and C respectively were: 1.392 ppm, 1.5912 ppm and 3.1975 ppm exceeded the standards set by the government through the Republic of Indonesia's Minister of Environment Decree Number 115 of 2003 namely the threshold the limit of mercury (Hg) in class C water is 0.002 ppm.