• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.37 no.1
• /
• pp.35-48
• /
• 2004

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of geochemical approaches for investigating and assessing heavy metal contamination in abandoned mine sites. Major sources of contaminants at the abandoned mine sites are mine water, waste rocks, tailings, and chemicals used in beneficiation and mineral processing. Soil, sediment, surface and ground water, and ecological system can be contaminated by heavy metals, which are transported due to erosion of mine waste piles, discharge of acid mine drainage and processed water, and dispersion of dust from waste rocks and tailings. The abandoned mine sites should be characterized using various methods including chemical analysis, mineralogical analysis, acid generation prediction tests, leaching/extraction tests, and field tests. Potential and practical environmental impacts from the abandoned mines should be assessed based on the site characterization.

• Advances in environmental research
• /
• v.9 no.3
• /
• pp.175-189
• /
• 2020

Municipal solid waste disposal is considered as one of the most important risks for environmental contamination which necessitates the development of strategies to reduce destructive consequences on the ecosystem as related especially to heavy metal accumulation. This study investigates heavy metal (i.e., As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, Zn) accumulation in the Tonekabon region, NW of Iran that is related to city waste disposal and evaluates the environmental impact in the Caspian Sea coastal region. For this purpose, after performing field studies and collecting 50 soil specimens from 5 sites of the study area, geochemical tests (i.e., inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, atomic absorption spectroscopy and x-ray fluorescence) were conducted on the soil specimens collected from the 5 sites (named as Sites A1, A2, A3, A4 and A5) and the results were used to estimate the pollution indices (i.e., geo-accumulation index, normalized enrichment factor, contamination factor, and pollution load index). The obtained indices were utilized to assess the eco-toxicological risk level in the landfill site which indicated that the city has been severely contaminated by Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn. These levels have been developed along the stream towards the nearshore areas indicating uptake of soil degradation. The heavy metal contamination was classified to range from unpolluted to highly polluted, which indicated serious heavy metal pollution in the study area as related to municipal solid waste disposal in Tonekabon.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
• /
• v.29 no.5
• /
• pp.350-362
• /
• 2020

In this study, nano Fe°-impregnated biochar (INPBC) was prepared using pruning residues and one-pot synthetic method and evaluated its performance as an amendment agent for the stabilization of arsenic-contaminated soil. For the preparation of INPBC, the mixture of pruning residue and Fe (III) solution was heated to 220℃ for 3hr in a teflon-sealed autoclave followed by calcination at 600℃ under N₂ atmosphere for 1hr. As-prepared INPBC was characterized using FT-IR, XRD, BET, SEM. For the stabilization test of as-prepared INPBC, As-contaminated soils (Soil-E and Soil-S) sampled from agricultural sites located respectively near E-abandoned mine and S-abandoned mine in South Korea were mixed with different of dosage of INPBC and cultivated for 4 weeks. After treatment, TCLP and SPLP tests were conducted to determine the stabilization efficiency of As in soil and showed that the stabilization efficiency was increased with increasing the INPBC dosage and the concentration of As in SPLP extractant of Soil-E was lower than the drinking water standard level of Ministry of Environment of South Korea. The sequential fractionation of As in the stabilized soils indicated that the fractions of As in the 1st and 2nd stages that correspond liable and known as bioavailable fraction were decreased and the fractions of As in 3rd and 4th stages that correspond relatively non-liable fraction were increased. Such a stabilization of As shows that the abundant nano Fe° on the surface of INPBC mixed with As-contaminated soils played the co-precipitation of As leaching from soil by surface complexation with iron. The results of this study may imply that INPBC as a promising amendments for the stabilization of As-contaminated soil play an important role.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
• /
• v.20 no.7
• /
• pp.135-147
• /
• 2015

Remediation of metal(loid)s-contaminated sites is crucial to protect human and ecosystem. Solidification and stabilization of metal(loid)s by the binder amendment is one of the cost-effective technologies. In this study, metal (loid)s in various field-contaminated soils obtained from steel-making, metal refinery and mining tillage were immobilized by the application of single binders such as diammonium phosphate (DAP), lime, and ladle slag. The efficiency of solidification and stabilization was evaluated by Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) and the Standard, Measurements and Testing programme of European Union (SM&T) extraction processes. In terms of TCLP extraction, the binder was effective in order of lime > DAP > ladle slag. All binders were highly effective in the immobilization of Pb, Zn, Cu, Ni, and Cd. The increased immobilization efficiency is attributed to the increase in the Step III and IV fractions of the SM&T extraction. Lime and ladle slag were highly effective in the immobilization of the metal(loid)s, however, As release increased with DAP due to competition between the phosphate originated from DAP and arsenate. A further study is needed for the better immobilization of multi metal(loid)s using binary binders.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
• /
• v.37 no.6
• /
• pp.396-406
• /
• 2004

Current physical and chemical methodologies, conventionally used to clean up metal contaminated soils, are generally too expensive to apply in large hazardous waste sites including agricultural lands adjacent to closed or abandoned metal mines. Phytoremediation using plants to extract, sequester and detoxify environmental pollutants is one of the cost-effective and aesthetically-pleasing alternatives, compared with environmentally destructive remedial methods currently being practiced. But, phytoremediation has some limitations such as time consuming and low performance: in general, it is seasonally dependent and slower in removing metals than other methods, and metal accumulating plants are slow growers. Improvement of plants for metal tolerance, accumulation, and translocation using genetic engineering techniques recently opened up new possibilities for phytoremediation. In this paper, we have discussed about recent developments in conventional and genetically engineered phytoremediation. For the conventional phytoremediation, focuses are on the natural hyperaccumulator and the chemically assisted phytoremediation. Some pros and cons on the phytoremediation using transgenic plants, coupled with focusing on the mechanistic view points, are also discussed. It might be concluded that the transgenic plants will be effective tools in the practical application of phytoremediation especially for the highly contaminated soils but mechanisms involved should be deeply understood in advance.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
• /
• v.25 no.2_spc
• /
• pp.28-54
• /
• 2020

Even though a systematic sampling approach is very crucial in both the general and detailed investigation phases to produce the best conceptual site model for contaminated sites, the concept is not yet established in South Korea. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued the 'Strategic Sampling Approaches Technical guide' in 2018 to help environmental professionals choose which sampling approaches may be needed and most effective for given site conditions. The EPA guide broadly defines strategic sampling as the application of focused data collection across targeted areas of the conceptual site model (CSM) to provide the appropriate amount and type of information needed for decision-making. These strategic sampling approaches can prevent the essential data from missing, minimize the uncertainty of projects and secure the data which are necessary for the important site-decisions. Furthermore, these provide collaborative data sets through the life cycle phases of projects, which can generate more positive proofs on the site-decisions. The strategic sampling approaches can be divided by site conditions. This technical guide categorized it into eight conditions; High-resolution site characterization in unconsolidated environments, High-resolution site characterization in fractured sedimentary rock environments, Incremental sampling, Contaminant source definition, Passive groundwater sampling, Passive sampling for surface water and sediment, Groundwater to surface water interaction, and Vapor intrusion. This commentary paper introduces specific sampling methods based on site conditions when the strategic sampling approaches are applied.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
• /
• v.44 no.4
• /
• pp.194-198
• /
• 2001

Contaminated sites are often abandoned for an extended period of time, thus organopollutants becoming sequestered. The information on the initial concentrations of the contaminants would be helpful for the economic bioremediation of the chemicals. The present study estimated the initial concentrations of atrazine and phenanthrene through multiple regression analyses using soil properties and the amount of chemicals available in situ. Percentage mineralized or extracted was best correlated with organic C or logarithm of organic C, and the $R^2$ values were 0.548 and 0.894 for atrazine and phenanthrene, respectively. Estimation of the initial concentration of the chemicals was then calculated from both the percentage mineralized or extracted and the amount of chemicals extracted or mineralized. Results showed that the estimation of the initial concentration of the chemical at the time of contamination is feasible.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
• /
• 2000.11a
• /
• pp.129-135
• /
• 2000

Four types of land use were selected for sampling and study with different characteristics of heavy metal contamination during the period from August 1998 to June 2000. A series of studies have been carried out concerning the physicochemical characteristics of the sediments settling down in a gully pot to evaluate the contamination of Pb, Zn, Cd, Co, Cr and Cu. An examination of six elements indicated that Zn, Cu and Pb were the heavy metals severely impacted by anthropogenic input in Seoul. An assessment of 60 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in urban runoff and ground water was conducted based on samples collected from 31 sites and 12 wells, respectively, in Seoul City. The higher levels of alkyl benzenes in urban runoff indicated that Seoul areas were mainly contaminated through traffic sources.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
• /
• v.13 no.5
• /
• pp.81-87
• /
• 2008

In accompany with the transfer of US army bases, recent surveys reported serious contamination of soils by the release of petroleum from storage facilities and heavy metals accumulated in rifle-ranges. These problems have made an increased concerns of cleanup technology for contaminated soils. In this study, a full-scale soil washing process improved by multistage continuous desorption and agitational desorption techniques was examined for petroleum-contaminated soils obtained from three different remedial sites that contained 29.3, 16.6, and 7.8% of silt and clay, respectively. The initial concentrations of total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) were 5,183, 2,560, and 4,860 mg/kg for each soil. Pure water was applied to operate washing process, in which water used for washing process was recycled 100% for over 6 months. The results of full-scale washing tests showed that the TPH concentrations for soils (> 3.0 mm) were 50${\sim}$356 mg/kg (85.2${\sim}$98.2% removal rates), regardless of the contents of silt and clay from in A, B and C soil, when the soils were washed at 3.0 kg/$cm^2$ of injection pressure with the method of wet particle separation. Based on the initial TPH concentration, the TPH removal rates for each site were 85.2, 98.2 and 89.9%. For soils in the range of 3.0${\sim}$0.075 mm, the application of first-stage desorption technique as a physical method resulted 834, 1,110, and 1,460 mg/kg of TPH concentrations for each soil, also additional multi-stage continuous desorption reduced the TPH concentration to 330, 385, and 245 mg/kg that were equivalent to 92.4, 90.6, and 90.1% removal rates, respectively. The result of multi-stage continuous desorption for fine soil (0.075${\sim}$0.053 mm) were 791, 885, and 1,560 mg/kg, and additional agitation desorption showed 428, 440, and, 358 mg/kg of TPH concentrations. Compared with initial concentration, the removal rates were 92.0, 93.9 and 92.9%, respectively. These results implied we could apply strategic process of soil washing for varies types of contaminated soils to meet the regulatory limit of TPH.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
• /
• v.14 no.1
• /
• pp.18-28
• /
• 2009

Many countries have recently established legal regulations and soil quality standards for soil protection, This study investigated the role of soil quality standards in soil protection policy and methods of selecting standard substances from various types of chemicals. In most countries, soil quality standards act as guidance for further detail surveyor risk assessment from comparing soil concentration with the soil quality standards. Soil quality standards of Switzerland, Demark and Japan were used as enforcement tools. Priority substances for the standards were first selected from frequently detected chemicals in contaminated sites. Those substances were extensively evaluated for toxic effects, exposure potential and availability in chemical analysis.