Soil monitoring in the area of hazardous industrial waste disposal facilities

Abstract

The article provides proposals for organizing and conducting soil monitoring in the vicinity of the enterprise for recycling waste of I and II hazard class. Ecotechnopark “Mirny” is organized in the Kirov region on the basis of the former chemical weapons destruction facility. We propose a list of indicators, controlled in soils, based on information on the composition of emissions, requirements of regulatory documents, results of engineering and environmental surveys and environmental impact assessments. A soil monitoring network was recommended, including 14 sites located in different biocenoses in accordance with the wind rose and terrain features, which is coordinated with the air and vegetation monitoring network. The developed monitoring regulations provide for different frequency of soil sampling and analysis for various indicators depending on the technological process, composition of emissions at each stage, and provides for soil survey immediately before the start of operation of the facility. This survey will allow us to assess the natural-anthropogenic background and subsequently assess the level of environmental impact by accumulative trend in the content of pollutants. This approach seems relevant in a high soil cover complexity, remoteness of protected areas, construction of the object on previously developed territories, and contradictory and incomplete information about the regional background. Annually soil sampling from the upper layers of soil seems advisable. If contamination of the upper horizon is detected, soil samples from the underlying layers should be analyzed to determine the depth of contamination. It is especially important when groundwater is close to the ground.