Heavy metals contamination of soils surrounding waste deposits in Romania

Abstract

Soils contamination with heavy metals is one of the most severe aspects of environmental pollution in Romania, independently of the origin sources (domestic or industrial activities) or type of disposal (organised landfill or hazardous deposits). This fact is the consequence of the poor state of the existing waste deposits in Romania and of the significant costs involved by the establishing of a new landfill according with the international regulations. The present study is trying to emphasise the contamination of soils surrounding different categories of waste deposits (sewage sludge ponds, domestic and industrial waste landfills, hillocks, sterile deposits) from various regions of Romania. Some case studies show a special interest being localised in a protected area (Iron Gates Natural Park). In order to quantity the concentration of metals like Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Zn, Ni, Mo in soil samples, analysis were performed using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES). Romanian standards were used as reference values.