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Characteristics of Natural and Urban Soils

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Dealing with Contaminated Sites

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Abstract

This chapter deals with soils that have been contaminated by human activities and soils that have inherent contamination due to natural causes, as well as soils that may be thought of as contaminated, but where the contaminants are part of the natural geochemistry, they are completely inert and unlikely to cause any significant risk to life. Contaminated soils have figured greatly in the mind of the public since a number of dramatic, highly publicised events occurred in which residential developments on former landfills caused serious health problems for the inhabitants. Logically, the primary focus of studies and inventories of soil contamination were the industrial lands, from medieval metal processing to modern day manufacturing and storage, war zones and battle grounds. Besides, other factors impacting contamination potential have to be taken into account, e.g. flood occurrences and ubiquitous atmospheric deposition. There was a need to define background levels of all contaminants that can occur naturally in the land or could have been added by humans. Likewise, a need to discover the mobility and toxicity of the contaminants was required to develop Risk Assessment. Finally, chemical affinities and solubilities of several contaminant groups are discussed.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Oxford Dictionary of Earth Sciences, Oxford University Press, 1999.

  2. 2.

    Ibid.

  3. 3.

    Environment Protection Authority, Victoria, Australia.

  4. 4.

    Clay minerals have layered crystal structures comprising octahedral sheets of Al(OH)3 and tetrahedral sheets of Si2O5. In some, the sheets can move apart to let other ions or molecules enter.

  5. 5.

    The TCLP, or Toxicity Characteristic Leaching (not Leachate) Procedure is designed to determine the mobility of both organic and inorganic analytes present in liquid, solid, and multiphasic wastes. The TCLP analysis simulates landfill conditions. Over time, water and other liquids percolate through landfills. The percolating liquid often reacts with the solid waste in the landfill, and may pose public and environmental health risks because of the contaminants it absorbs. The TCLP analysis determines which of the contaminants identified by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are present in the leachate and their concentrations.

  6. 6.

    Australia and New Zealand Environment Conservation Council.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Applied Sciences, Osnabrück, Germany

    Helmut Meuser

  2. Van de Graaff & Associates, Melbourne, Australia

    Robert H.M. Van de Graaff

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  1. Helmut Meuser
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  2. Robert H.M. Van de Graaff
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Correspondence to Helmut Meuser .

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  1. National Institute of Public Health and, Bilthoven, 3720 BA, Netherlands

    Frank A. Swartjes

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Meuser, H., Van de Graaff, R.H. (2011). Characteristics of Natural and Urban Soils. In: Swartjes, F. (eds) Dealing with Contaminated Sites. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9757-6_2

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