Interações entre escoamento superficial, hidrossedimentos e radionuclídeos (210Pb, 226Ra, 228Ra, Th e U) no Alto Ribeirão das Antas, Poços de Caldas-MG

Abstract

Knowledge about hydrological and sedimentological dynamics of a river basin is fundamental to the adequate management of water resources, and it can support the identification of contaminants in the water, the estimation of water erosion, the estimation of reservoir siltation, and even the reduction of water treatment costs. The study carried out in Alto Ribeirão das Antas River Basin assessed, throughout seasons, all interactions between the surface runoff and the transport of suspended and underwater hydro-sediments, through direct monitoring of two sites at the Ribeirão das Antas channel. Concurrently, the potential of the indirect monitoring of suspended solids concentration was evaluated using an optical turbidity sensor. The hydrological results point to a high precipitation in the region, however with a well balanced distribution among the humid months, allowing the basin’s high capacity to transform precipitation into surface runoff. Sediment transport rates characterize the studied area as a low sediment production region. The sedimentological regime was found to be in accordance with the surface runoff regime, reflected by the seasonality of the transported masses. The estimation of transport of sediment in suspension through optical turbidity sensor presented promising results. Most of the results of radionuclides 210Pb, 226Ra, 228Ra, Th and U observed in water and in suspended hydro-sediment were below the detection limit of the methodology, whereas in the riverbed hydro-sediments quantification of radionuclides was possible. The radiometric results indicate absence of radionuclide carriage from the Águas Claras Dam at INB Caldas to Ribeirão das Antas. The low concentration values of radioactive elements observed in the study may be of natural origin, once the Poços de Caldas Plateau region presents a geological constitution endowed with anomalies associated to radionuclides.