Environmental assessment of arsenic released from potential pollution sources.

An assessment study of the environmental pathways of arsenic released from a coal-fired power plant (CFPP) or introduced into soil as a contaminant by phosphatic fertilizers has been carried out using a time-dependent forecasting model.The long-term predictions indicate that arsenic can be taken up by plants and that it can migrate into the groundwater system through soil layers. However, arsenic exhibits such a high degree of mobility that its retention and accumulation in biota should remain low. This fact may explain the relatively low concentrations of arsenic in environmental media as well as in groundwater systems.