ESTIMATING ANNUAL CADMIUM LOAD VIA SURFACE RUNOFF INTO SONGKHLA LAKE, THAILAND

Kitipan Kitbamroong1*, G. Padmanabhan 2,3, and Penjai Sompongchaiyakul 4,5

1

Director, Sherwood Group Consulting, Bangkok, Thailand

Professor, Civil Engineering Department, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58105, USA 3 Director, North Dakota water Resources Research Institute, Fargo, ND 58105, USA Department of Marine Science, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand Center of Excellence on Hazardous Substance Management, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand (*e-mail: kitipan@gmail.com)

4 5

ABSTRACT The cadmium transport via surface runoff to Songkhla Lake, Thailand, is the focus of this paper. Songkhla Lake is located in the southern part of Thailand covering approximately an area of 1,042 km2 with a drainage area of 7,687 km2. It is a major producer and nursery for local fisheries. Predominant land use in the drainage area of the lake is agriculture. Non-point source pollution loading of cadmium to the lake from the surrounding area is of great environmental concern. Surface runoff and associated sediment flow are the major mechanisms of transport of non-point source pollutants. A spatially distributed parameter model, Two-dimensional Runoff and Erosion and EXport (TREX), was used in this study to estimate cadmium transport load to the lake under three different scenarios. The results indicated the critical source areas from which cadmium loads are generated and the annual loads. This modeling effort was part of a comprehensive study to develop a decisionmaking tool for the basin management to minimize non-point source pollutants loading to the Songkhla Lake.

Keywords: Cadmium, Transport modeling, Non-point source pollution, Distributed models, Songkhla Lake INTRODUCTION Songkhla Lake is located in southern Thailand. Intense agriculture-related activities in the lake catchments have raised concerns about the potential for surface runoff transporting significant amounts of cadmium into the lake. Cadmium is commonly associated with rock phosphate fertilizers used in the lake catchments. Though not of immediate concern, cadmium was found in the sediment in the lake between 0-1.25 ppm (Sirinawin et al., 1998). Increasing agricultural activities in the catchments have the potential to increase cadmium accumulation in the lake (Sae-Eong et al., 2002). Cadmium levels as low as 0.5 ppb are known to kill juvenile fish, levels of 3 ppb are known to kill aquatic insects while adult fish die at levels as low as 5 ppb (Vital, 2005). Research reported in this paper is part of a comprehensive study to model the phosphorus and cadmium load to Songkhla Lake from its drainage area in order to develop a lake management decision support system (Kitbamroong et al., 2009; Kitbamroong et al., 2010). Songkhla Lake and its basin are spread over 3 provinces of Thailand: Phattalung, Songkhla, and Nakhon Si Thammarat (Figure 1.). The lake area is approximately 1,042 km2. It has a drainage area of 7,687 km2. The basin is bounded by two mountain ranges. The higher grounds of both the mountain ranges are covered with rainforests. Further down from the mountain range, from north to south of the basin parallel to the mountain range, there are undulating plains alternating with low hills. The area towards the east approaching the lake is a large flat plain, most of which are rice farms. The basin has

12 sub-basins. The majority of SLB land, 5,660 km2 is used for agriculture. Most of the agricultural land is used for rubber plantation and rice (60% and 30%, respectively). Forestland occupies 1,164 km2, most of which is rainforest and the remaining is mangrove and swamp forest. The average rainfall in the basin is 2,043 mm.

Figure 1. Songkhla Lake Basin

TREX WATERSHED MODEL One of the few available models with the capability of simulating transport of heavy metals via surface runoff is the Two-dimensional Runoff and Erosion and eXport (TREX) model (Velleux et al., 2005, 2006 and 2008). TREX was used in this study. TREX is a fully distributed, physically based numerical model to simulate chemical transport and fate at the watershed scale. TREX has three major submodels: hydrology, sediment transport, and chemical transport. A conceptual diagram of the chemical model processes in the TREX is presented in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Generalized Conceptual Model Framework in TREX (Velleux et al., 2005)

CONCEPTUALIZATION OF SLB FOR MODELING For this study, the SLB was divided into 8 sub-watersheds (Figure 1): Klong Pa Payom & Thanae subwatershed with one discharge point on the upper lake, Nathom sub-watershed with one discharge point

to the upper lake, Tachiad sub-watershed with three discharge points to the upper lake and one discharge point to the middle lake, Pa Bon sub-watershed with one discharge point to the middle lake, Phru Poh and Rattaphum sub-watershed with 3 discharge points to the middle lake and two discharge points to the lower lake, U-Tapao and Eastern Coast Sub Basin 4 Sub-watershed with four discharge points to the lower lake, Eastern Coast Sub Basin 2 and 3 Sub-watershed with two discharge points to the middle lake and one discharge point to the middle lake, and Eastern Coast Sub Basin 1 Subwatershed with four discharge points to the upper lake. DATA AND INPUT PREPARATION The study used 2004 data assembled into a GIS database. Topographic data in the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) format with 30mx30m resolution was provided by the Southern Regional GeoInformatics and Space Technology Centre, Prince of Songkla University. The Land Development Department of Thailand had the soils and land use data already formatted for GIS usage. LANDSAT satellite image was used to confirm the landuse of the area. Crop, fertilizer and management data on field, schedule and operation were collected from field survey and from farmers, fertilizer resellers, cooperatives, and farmers in Phatthalung, Nakhon Si Thammarat and Songkhla provinces. Non-crop data was obtained from field surveys and literature reviews. The cadmium data available for transport was estimated using Substance Flux Analysis (SFA),. Rainfall and temperature data were obtained from the Thai Meteorological Department in text format and had to be converted into GIS format. Data from both primary and secondary sources were compiled to establish a database of sources and amount of cadmium in the system products and processes. The model was calibrated and verified with actual cadmium levels. Non-availability of different categories of data for same periods has been a problem. For example, the concentration of cadmium in phosphate fertilizer was investigated in 2004, but the corresponding figures for the concentration in animal feed were only available for the year 2001. The predominant land use in the study area is agriculture. TREX, being a spatially distributed model, requires large amount of data. All data was input in the program in ASCII format. Watershed delineation was implemented using GIS. However, additional massive amount of work was necessary to create links and node maps. Delineation of watershed to obtain cell and reach data is achieved by using DEM 100m x 100m to create watershed boundary and cells, avoiding generating grid cells beyond 50,000 grid cells per model. Locations of channel cells and the stream channel network were estimated using ArcMAP 9.3 (ESRI, 2005) and TauDEM (Tarboton, 2002). One of the most difficult aspects of using TREX on large watersheds is the development of connectivity relationships required for modeling channels. The basic problem is zero (flat) slopes in channel (stream network) cells within the watershed. The result is the model grid will not properly drain. This can be an important issue on large watersheds (> 1,000 km2) when using larger (> 100m) grid cell sizes or due to problems with DEM quality in complex terrain. With larger grid cells, there can be many contiguous locations within the defined stream channel that have zero slopes (Tarboton, 2002). GIS PLATFORM TREX is designed to be compatible with data from raster GIS sources. In particular, data describing elevation, soil types, land use, and contaminant distributions can be processed in a GIS and used as model inputs. Details of input data preparation are given below: 1) Map and boundary of Phatthalung, Nakhon Si Thammarat and Songkhla province. 2) Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of Phatthalung, Nakhon Si Thammarat and Songkhla province with resolution 30mx30m and 100mx100m 3) Accumulate rain fall, number of rainy days, and monthly average rain intensity for the past 30 years (1974 2003) of every weather station located in Phatthalung, Nakhon Si Thammarat and Songkhla province from Thai Meteorological Department. 4) Land use of Phatthalung, Nakhon Si Thammarat and Songkhla province year 2000 from Land Development Department. 5) Soil and Soil shape files of Phatthalung, Nakhon Si Thammarat and Songkhla province from Land Development Department.

6) LANDSAT satellite image with 30x30m of Phatthalung, Nakhon Si Thammarat and Songkhla province year 2000 7) Rivers and streams of Phatthalung, Nakhon Si Thammarat and Songkhla province year 2000, from Southern Regional Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Centre, Prince of Songkla University 8) Calibration sampling points (Sea-Eong et al., 2002) 9) Validation sampling points (Leekpai, 2006) MODEL CALIBRATION AND VALIDATION The data for calibration was taken from Sae-Eong et al., (2002). A total of 20 soil samples were collected randomly covering SLB to study the metal concentrations. The validation data was taken from Leekpai (2006). A total of 212 soil samples were collected randomly to study the spatial variability of heavy metal concentrations in surface soil of SLB. The model parameters subject to the calibration were hydraulic conductivity, surface roughness, soil erosivity, land cover factor and chemical distribution coefficients. Calibrated model parameters values are shown in table 1.
Parameter Hydraulic conductivity (Kh) (m/s) Range 1.5 x 10-6 1.5 x 10-6 2.0 x 10-6 1.5 x 10-6 2.8 x 10-6 1.0 x 10-6 1.5 x 10-6 0.02 - 0.03 0.05 - 0.15 0.02 0.02 - 0.64 0.45 0.30 0.45 0.15 0.05 0.15 0.08 0.18 0.0-0.001 0.001-0.02 0.02-0.03 0.03-0.05 0.05-0.10 0.10-0.20 0.25-0.30 0.30-0.60 0.60-1.00 Description Sandy loams Gravelly sandy loams Pits and dumps Diggings and tailings Sandy loams Gravelly sandy loams Pits and dumps Diggings and tailings Forest Shrub and grassland Bare rock/sand Urban/commercial Channel bed Fertile Forest Meadow, Dry Forrest, Peat Mangroves and rice fields Deciduous forest Orchards Horticultural and Field Pine tree Housing/Mixed farming/beach Abandon land/mine/open

Soil erodibility (K) (ton/acre)

Manning's roughness coefficient (Manning, n)

Crop Management Factor (C)

Table 1. Summary of calibrated model parameter values

Model sensitivity was explored by parameter perturbation as part of calibration efforts. The most sensitive parameters in the hydrologic model were the effective hydraulic conductivity (Kh) and flow resistance (Manning n). The most sensitive parameters for the sediment transport model were typically the soil erodibility (K) and land cover factor (C). The land management practice factor (P) was not considered to be uncertain because lands in the watershed are not managed for agriculture or as rangelands. The most sensitive parameter for the chemical transport model was the chemical partition coefficient (Kd). During calibration, these parameters were varied within accepted ranges representing the uncertainty of each parameter. Overall model uncertainty envelope bounds were estimated from the combination of individual parameter values that cause the largest increase (upper bound) or decrease (lower bound) in model response. Upper bound conditions occur for maximum surface runoff, maximum soil erosion, and minimum chemical partitioning. Lower bound conditions occur for minimum runoff, minimum erosion, and maximum partitioning.

SCENARIOS MODELED The model could be used to develop the decision support tool for the Songkhla Lake environmental management decision making process under practical scenarios. The following three scenarios were tested in this study: 1) Significant incremental and decrease of fertilizer usage. This provides an understanding of the relative impact of fertilizer usage to phosphorous and cadmium distribution in the basin and runoff from surrounding watershed into the lake. 2) Types of fertilizer applied. Providing an alternate choice for types of fertilizer that decreases load of phosphorous and cadmium to the basin. 3) Types of crops applied and application rate of fertilizer for certain crops. High contribution of phosphorous and cadmium from certain areas in the basin could be removed or transferred to lower contribution areas. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION An overall increase of 10%, 50%, -10%, and -50% fertilizer usage within the area were simulated. Results for each scenario are shown below. Figure 3 for 10% increase shows that the amount of cadmium contamination increases especially in mixed orchards near the rivers.

Figure 3. Comparison of TREX results after increase 10% fertilizer

Figure 4 for 50% increase shows that the amount of cadmium contamination significantly increases throughout the sub-watershed.

Figure 4. Comparison of TREX results after increase 50% fertilizer

Figure 5 for 10% decrease shows that the amount of cadmium contamination significantly decreases. The cadmium content near the rivers and near the lake is still high.

Figure 5. Comparison of TREX results after decrease 10% fertilizer

Figure 6 for 50% decrease shows that the amount of cadmium contamination significantly decreases. The cadmium content near the rivers and near the lake has appreciably decreased.

Figure 6. Comparison of TREX results after decrease 50% fertilizer

The result of changing to low cadmium containing fertilizer, less than 1.5 mg-Cd/kg, is shown in Figure 7. The amount of cadmium contamination reduced significantly by more than 5 times.

Figure 7. Comparison of TREX results after changing fertilizer formula

A change from horticultural crops to rubber crop was simulated. Figure 8 shows that the amount of cadmium contamination significantly decreases.

Figure 8. Comparison of TREX results after changing crops

Sub watershed Klong Pa Payom and Thaae Nathom Tachiad Pa Bon Phru Poh and Rattaphum U-Tapao and Eastern Coast Sub Basin 4 Eastern Coast Sub Basin 2 and 3 Eastern Coast Sub Basin 1 Total

Cadmium (Kg/Year) 42 27 28 12 41 93 12 18 273

Cadmium Contribution (%) 15.38 9.89 10.25 4.39 15.01 34.06 4.39 6.59 100

Table 2. Cadmium contribution

For the west side of the watershed the error between cadmium observed and model prediction was found to be between 15.9 to 64.1 %. Considered together with the physical factors of U-Tapao including runoff high runoff, crop management horticultural crops, elevation steep slope, organic matter - high, soil erodibility high erosion, pH acidity, clay high percentage, and total metal high, it is clearly seen that why the area has the highest potential. The cadmium contribution from each sub-watershed is shown in Table 2. Almost one third of the cadmium contribution occurred from U-Tapao and Eastern Coast Sub Basin 4 sub watershed, followed by Klong Pa Payom and Thaae, Phru Poh and Rattaphum sub watershed. CONCLUSIONS By changing the fertilizer formula alone from high to low cadmium-contaminated type leads to a significant decrease of cadmium contribution from the watershed, especially in the U-Tapao sub watershed where the overall physical conditions including high runoff, horticultural crops, steep slope, high organic matter, high erosion, acidity, high clay percentage, and high total metal could promote the transport of cadmium through the watershed. However, with other scenarios, by either changing the types of crops grown in the area or by lowering the fertilizer rate could also lead to lower cadmium

contribution to the SLB. Methods used and approximations made in previous studies on estimating cadmium loads to the Lake were often crude and therefore be considered only as a starting point. The wide range of cadmium content reported in the past studies suggests the need for further measurements specific to the SLB situation so as to describe it more accurately. This study is an attempt to estimate cadmium transport to the Songkhla Lake via surface runoff using TREX, a metal transport model. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors acknowledge the National Research Center for Environmental and Hazardous Waste Management, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand for sponsoring this research, the department of Civil Engineering, North Dakota State University, USA for hosting the first author as a visiting scholar during the study and the Faculty of Environmental Management, Prince of Songkla University for providing research materials and facilities. REFERENCES Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI). 2005. ArcGIS/ArcInfo 9.3. ESRI, Redlands, CA. Kitbamroong, K., Sompongchayakul P., and Padmanabhan, G. (2009). Improving Non-Point Source Model Input Parameters Using Substance Flux Analysis, Journal of Applied Sciences, ISSN 1812-5654, 2009. Kitbamroong, K., Sompongchayakul P., and Padmanabhan, G. 2010. Modeling Phosphorus Transport via Surface Runoff in Songkhla Lake Basin, Thailand, EWRI/ASCE conference, 3rd International Perspective on Current and Future State of Water Resources and the Environment, January 5-7, 2010, Chennai, India. Leekpai, K. 2006. Spatial Variability of Heavy Metal Concentrations in the Songkhla Lake Catchment Surface Soil. Master of Science in Environmental Management, Prince of Songkla University Sae-Eong, T., Tjell, C., Mosbaek, H. and Sompongchaiyakul, P. 2002. Metals Concentration in Songkhla Lake Basin's Soils. The 28th Congress on Science and Technology of Thailand, 24-26 October. Sirinawin, W., Turner, D., Westerlund, S. and Kanatharana, P. 1998. Trace metals study in the Outer Songkla Lake, Thales Sap Songkla, a southern Thai estuary, Mar. Chem. 62:175-183 Tarboton, D.G. 2002. TauDEM: Terrain Analysis Using Digital Elevation Models. Utah State University, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, http://moose.cee.usu.edu/taudem/taudem.html, October 2002. Velleux, M.L., Julien, P.Y. and England, J.F. 2005 TREX Watershed Modeling Framework User's Manual: Model Theory and Description. Department of Civil Engineering, Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, August, 83 p. Velleux, Mark L., Pierre Y. Julien, Rosalia Rojas-Sanches, William H. Clements, and John F. England Jr. 2006. Simulation of Metals Transport and Toxicity at a Mine-Impacted watershed: California Gulch, Colorado, Environmnetal Science and Technology, Vol. 40, No. 22, 2006 Velleux, M. L., England, J. F., and Julien, P. Y 2008 TREX: spatially distributed model to assess watershed contaminant transport and fate, Science of the Total Environment, 404(1):113-28, 2008 Oct 1; doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2008.05.053. Epub 2008 Jul 22.