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THE USE OF INSITU TREATMENT TO REDUCE TOXICITY
Citation:
GATCHETT, A. M. THE USE OF INSITU TREATMENT TO REDUCE TOXICITY. Presented at The Central and Eastern European Conference on Health and the Environment, Bratislava, SLOVAKIA, October 22 - 25, 2006.
Impact/Purpose:
To inform the public.
Description:
Mining or smelting of lead and zinc ores generates mine tailing and smelter slags rich in lead, zinc, and cadmium. Old smelting operations have commonly caused severly contaminated sites and adverse effects in the terrestrial environment. Research has clarified the causes of such barren contaminated soils and allowed identification of soil amendments and methods to achieve effective revitalization and revegetation of these soils. This presentation will provide and overview of research strategies that reduce the toxicity of metals in soils contaminated with metals from mining. In addition, information will be presented on a case study from the Joplin, MO field experiment. In this experiment, 12 different treatment plots using a variety of soils amendments: 1) phosphates, 2) iron waste materials and 3) biosolids were evaluated for soil lead bioavailability. Results from the study showed soil lead reductions in treated plots when compared to the control. General lessons learned will also be presented.