The impact of industrial waste used in the construction of a road in the village of Suntsy, Kirov Region, on the surrounding soils

Short Communications Article

Abstract

The paper studied the quality of the soil on the side of a country road in terms of priority chemical elements in order to assess the possible negative impact of industrial waste used in the construction of the road (a mixture of limestone sift and sludge from the reagent purification of calcium chloride solution with lime milk), which, according to their certificates, are classified as fifth and fourth hazard classes, respectively. The soil samples were collected from the side of the road, 70 cm from the road surface. The background sample was taken from a non-man-made background area in the Kuma district of the Kirov region. The waste used in the construction of the road and the selected soil samples were analyzed using X-ray fluorescence spectrometry with the EDX-720 instrument to determine the concentrations of elements in the range from 0.0001% to 100%. The method is based on the dependence of the intensity of X-ray fluorescence on the concentration of an element in the sample. According to the results of the waste sample analysis, the priority chemical elements (Ca, Mg, Si, Fe, K, Mn, Sr) were identified. The analysis of the quantitative content of these elements in mg/kg of soil in the studied samples from the roadway, the roadside soil, and the background area showed that the highest content of Ca was observed in the waste sample, which corresponds to the composition of the mixture used in road construction. In soil samples from the roadside, the content of the detected elements does not exceed the concentrations of Ca, Mg, Si, Fe, K, Mn, Sr in the background sample. When determining the possible chemical contamination of roadside soil, specific pollutants associated with possible technogenic contamination from construction waste were determined using physical and chemical analysis methods: SO42-, F-, and CL- It has been shown that the concentration of CL- in the aqueous extract from a soil sample taken from the roadside is 11,9 times higher than the background levels, and 1.8 times higher than the MPC for water bodies. This indicates the migration and negative impact of the waste used in the construction of the highway to the roadside soil.