Abstract:

Sediments deposited along roads are dust particles found along road surfaces, recognized as an important source of contamination in urban environments. Eighteen deposits were collected from the six major roads leading into Owerri town. Samples were characterized for physicochemical parameters including- particle size distribution, electrical conductivity, pH, organic matter, temperature, moisture content.etc and digested with H2SO4 for heavy metal analysis using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. Data obtained were compared with the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) standard and interpreted using chemometric models to check extent of pollution. In this work, the particle size distribution result indicates that clay has the highest percentage 58%, seconded by silt 22% and then sand 20% in Onitsha road. The heavy metal contents in RDS are in order of decreasing concentration: Zn> Ni> Mn> Co> Cu. Correlation results revealed that all the metals exhibited weak positive relationship with temperature, they also had weak positive association with soil organic matter except copper (-0.01) and manganese (-0.15) which have negative associations. The value of pollution index is 0.00 w