Sequestration and Bioavailability of Organopollutants in Soil;Their Implication to the Risk Assessment

The bioremediation is an economic technology to remove the organopollutants from soil. It is often found that the remediation could not remove the compounds below the levels determined by vigorous extractions as required by regulatory agencies. The reason for the reduced bioavailability with increasing time of aging has been accredited to the sequestration of the compounds in remote sites within or between soil particles. Then, the aging could be defined as the time-dependent sequestration. Partitioning and entrapment have been suggested as mechanism for aging. The rate and extent of the sequestration varies among dissimilar soils. The bioavailability of aged pollutants in soil could be measured by bioassays, mild solvent extraction, and soild-phase extractions. The sequestration could be affected by many factors including various soil properties, wetting and drying cycle, and the presence of cosolutes and NAPLs etc. The bioavailability and sequestration should be considered to determine the environmentally acceptable endpoint.