We investigated concentrations of heavy metals(Cr, Cd, Zn, Fe, Pb, Cu, and Mn) and correlations between concentrations of heavy metals in the sediment, soil, weeds, and vegetables on the lower Nakdong river. Concentrations of heavy metals on the lower Milyang river was generally lower than those of other sampling area. In the soil, concentration of Pb is generally larger than that of other heavy metals. Generally, concentrations of heavy metals in the sediment show decreasing tendency as the sampling area moves toward downstream of the river, but those of in the soil and weeds show increasing tendency. There is no significant correlation between concentration of heavy metals in the soil-sediment, soil-vegetables, sediment-weeds, or vegetables-weeds. Only concentrations of Pb in the vegetables and those of in the weeds show very high correlation.

This study was performed to evaluate the contents of heavy metals in water, sediment and soil of the 7 different sampling points along the West Nakdong river. The results were as follows: the concentrations of Zn, P, Pb, Cd, Mn, Cu and As in the sediment were 197.48, 551.85, 67.01, 2.54, 491.39, 42.95 and 10.52ppm,respectively. The concentrations of Zn, F, Pb, Cd, Mn, Cu and As in the soil was 83.32, 482.89, 17.15, 1.02, 226.02, 26.15 and 7.29ppm, respectively, The concentration ratios of heavy metals in the water to the sediment were 593 - 12700 (Cd >> Cu > Zn > Mn > As > Pb) and that of the water to the soil were 152 - 5100 (Cu > Cd > Zn > Mn > As >Pb). The correlation coefficients of Cu and Pb were high among the water, sediment and soil. Because the accumulation amounts of heavy metal in the sediment were high, the concentration of heavy metals in the sediment was higher than in soil. The correlation coefficient of heavy metals among water, sediment and soil was high (0.79 - 0.95).