Land Treatment and the Toxicity Response of Soil Contaminated With Wood Preserving Waste

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title

Remediation

Publication Date

1995

Volume

5

Abstract

Soils contaminated with wood preserving wastes, including pentachlo‐rophenol (PCP) and creosote, are treated at field‐scale in an engineered prepared‐bed system consisting of two one‐acre land treatment units (LTUs). The concentration of selected indicator compounds of treatment performance included PCP, pyrene, and total carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (TCPAHs) was monitored in the soil by taking both composited soil samples at multiple points in time, and discrete soil samples at two points in time. The mean concentration of the indicator compounds and the 95‐percent confidence interval (CI) of the composite and discrete samples agreed relatively well, and first‐order degradation rate kinetics satisfactorily represented the mean chemical concentration loss of indicator compounds in the LTU. Toxicity of the soil, as measured by MicrotoxTM assay of the soil extracts, indicated that toxicity reduction corresponded with indicator compound disappearance. No toxicity effects were observed with time in treated layers of soil (lifts) buried beneath highly contaminated lifts of newly applied soil. This indicated that vertical migration of soluble contaminants from such lifts had little effect on the microbial activity in the underlying treated soil.

Comments

Originally published by Wiley-Blackwell. Publisher’s PDF available through remote link. May require fee or subscription.

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