Column leaching tests on soils containing less investigated organic pollutants

Abstract

Column tests are a common tool to investigate the leaching behavior of contaminated soil and waste materials. In contrast to inorganic analytes, fewer studies with organic contaminants are available based on column tests. This paper is aimed at the question if soil materials contaminated with organic pollutants can be reliably investigated by column tests. Soils contaminated with TPH (total petrol hydrocarbons), PFC (perfluorinated surfactants) and the biocide tebuconazole were used for column percolation tests. Differences in the leaching behavior are mainly driven by partitioning behavior between organic carbon and water, which can be estimated from log KOW values and size and shape of molecules. PFC show higher release (10–50% for individual compounds) than pesticides (3.7–5.3%) and TPH (<1%) at liquid to solid ratio of 4l/kg. All eluate concentrations are low with maximum concentrations of 50μg/l for PFC and 1–2mg/l for pesticides and TPH. Despite this, the observed standard deviations are quite small suggesting good repeatability. In general the observed concentration trends are similar to that from lysimeter studies found in the literature and thus, it can be concluded that laboratory column experiments are a reliable tool for organic compounds with various physico-chemical properties.