Journal of Environmental Protection, 2013, 4, 385-388 http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jep.2013.44046 Published Online April 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/jep) 385 Fluoride Mobilization Due to Coal Mining in Parts of Chhattisgarh Piyush Kant Pandey 1 , Madhurima Pandey 2 , Meena Chakraborty 2 1 Bhilai Institute of Technology Raipur, New Raipur, India; 2 Applied Chemistry, Bhilai Institute of Technology, Durg, India. Email: drpiyushkant_pandey@yahoo.com Received July 22 nd , 2012; revised February 25 th , 2013; accepted March 27 th , 2013 Copyright © 2013 Piyush Kant Pandey et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution Li- cense, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT This paper reports the ground water quality deterioration due to fluoride in the parts of Chhattisgarh state. Out of se- lected 60 sites, high contamination of fluoride content up to 7.00 ppm was found in Kolam, Muragaon and Saraitola villages and in the range of 1.0 to 1.2 ppm in Basanpalli, Bhalumuda, Dolesara, Penkapara, Kunjhemura villages. Ten new areas were selected for yearly monitoring and fluoride concentration was found up to 1.44 ppm. The results call for immediate steps for monitoring and treatment of contaminated locations. Keywords: Chhattisgarh; Contamination; Fluoride; Ground Water; Treatment 1. Introduction Around 200 million people among from 25 nations the world over, are under the dreadful fate of fluorosis. India and China the two most populous countries of the world, are the most affected [1,2]. Concentration of fluoride in ground water is mainly due to natural or geogenic con- tamination which depends on the geogenic reasons of an area [3,4]. Fluorosis is endemic in 17 states of India. The most seriously affected areas are Andhra Pradesh [5-7], Punjab [8], Haryana [9], Rajasthan [10,11], Gujrat [12], Tamilnadu [13], Orissa [14], Maharashtra [15] and Uttar Pradesh [16]. Recently some highly fluoridated areas in Chhattisgarh have also been located. Out of selected 60 sites, high contamination of fluoride content up to 7.00 ppm was found in Kolam, Muragaon and Saraitola vil- lages and in the range of 1.0 to 1.2 ppm in Basanpalli, Bhalumuda, Dolesara, Penkapara, Kunjhemura villages of Raigarh but when we moved ahead towards Sarguja (north to Raigharh) we found concentration of Fluoride up to 1.44 ppm, which is entirely related to the geo- logical structure of the study area. Thus the main ob- jective of the study was to assess the contamination of fluoride in water & its cause. The Raigarh district (Figure 1) lies between 21˚22' - 22˚42' North latitude and 82˚55' to 83˚49' East longi- tude. The area is made up of sandstone, carbonaceous shale and feldspathtic stone. Surguja district (Figure 2) lies between 23˚37'25'' to 24˚6'17'' north latitude and 81˚34'40'' to 84˚4'40" east longitude. 2. Materials and Methods Sampling of contaminated area was carried out in 2008. The sampling bottles of one liter capacity were cleaned with detergent, chromic acid, tap water and finally with double distilled water. Then the samples were collected in these pre cleaned bottles. Duplicate samples were col- lected from each sampling site. Water samples were analyzed in laboratory for different water quality pa- rameters pH, conductivity, total dissolved solid (TDS), alkalinity, hardness, calcium, chloride, sulphate, nitrate and for heavy metals including iron, copper and zinc. Standard analytical methods were used for all water pa- rameter: pH measured using a single electrode pH-meter, conductivity using a conductivity meter; alkalinity, cal- cium and chloride were analyzed titrimetrically, sulphate with a turbidity meter and nitrate by the brucine method (APHA, 1992) [17]. For detection of iron, copper and zinc Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (Varian AA240FS) was used. Analysis of fluoride was carried out by ion se- lective electrode. 3. Results and Discussion Initially we randomly collected water samples from various locations of study area and then we had chosen ten particular locations for yearly monitoring of fluoride Copyright © 2013 SciRes. JEP