Abstract
The suitability of a clay (Upper Liassic) as barrier for a heavy metal disposal site had been investigated by analysing the subsoil of an approximately 40 yr old blast-furnace dust dump on this clay. Concentration profiles show that the heavy metals (mainly Zn and Pb) have been retained by sorption processes in the upper 5 to 10 cm below the clay/waste interface. Heavy-metal migrated into the clay by pure diffusion with an effective diffusion coefficient of 1.5 × 10−9 cm2 s−1, which corresponds to a retardation factor R between about 600 and 2100. It could be concluded that there is no potential risk of groundwater pollution because the subsoil, a 3 m thick plastic clay underlain by a 40 m thick clay rock, has a sorption capacity high enough to retain all heavy metals leachable from the dust dump.
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