ENVT

COLLEGE OF DRY LAND AGRIHCULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES
PROGRAM: TROPIC AL LAND REASOURCES MANAGEMENT
GROUP ASSIGNMENT OF ENVIROMENTAL POLLUTION AND MANAGEMENT
Name IDNO
DESTA ADENE cda/ptlr01/09
2. ENYEW ESUBALEW cda/ptlr02/09
3. GEBRE GIDEY cdr/ptlr03/09
Submitted To : Dr. RAJ

INTRODCTION
 heavy metals are metals or metalloids (elements that have

both metal and non-metal characteristics), Persistent in all
parts of the environment, Generally,have densities above 5
g/cm3 and cannot be degraded or destroyed.
 Heavy metal contamination of soil is one of the most

important environmental problems throughout the world .
 The ability of heavy metals to accumulate and cause toxicity

in biological systems - humans, animals, microorganisms and
plants has been reported as chemical hazards, heavy metals
are non-biodegradable and can remain almost in definitely in
Cont……
 Two of the main sources of heavy metal pollution

are geological and anthropogenic activities
 Anthropogenic sources of heavy metal

contamination come from
 industrial effluents,
 mining, fuel production,
 military operations,
 utilization of agricultural chemicals, and brand coal
combustion .or excess.
Con…….
 An increased accumulation of heavy metals can
have lethal effects
 on soil fertility,
 ecosystem functions
 poses a health risk to human beings and
animals (Turan et al., 2007).
 A number of biological procedures are being
used to treat soil.
OBJECTIVE
 The main objective of this assignment is,
 to identify the characteristics,
 source,
 effect and remediation of heavy metal
pollution in the soil.
CHARACTERISTICS OF HEAVY METAL CONTAMINATION Of
SOILS
 Wide distribution
 Heavy metal contamination has become
increasingly common in the world.
 It is almost a serious threat to every country.
 Strong latency
 Heavy metal contamination is colorless and
odorless, so it is difficult to be noticed.
 It does not explicitly damage the environment in
a short period.
COn……
 Irreversibility and remediation hardness
 Air and water are polluted, the pollution problem can

be reversed certainly by:
 dilution and
 self-purification after switching off the sources of
pollution.
 However, it is difficult to use dilution or self-
purification techniques to
• eliminate heavy metal contamination and to get soils
improved.
Sources of heavy metals
Excess heavy metals in the soil originate from many

sources, which include :
 atmospheric deposition
 Sewage,
 irrigation,
 improper stacking of the industrial solid waste,
 mining activities,
 the use of pesticides and fertilizers etc.
Atmosphere to soils pathway.
 Heavy metals in the atmosphere are mainly from:
 gas and dust produced ,
 By energy, and transport,
 Metallurgy and production of construction materials.
 Heavy metals basically go into the atmosphere in the
form of:
 aerosol and deposit to the soil through natural
sedimentation and precipitation. .
Sewage to soils pathway
 Wastewater can be divided into several categories

 Sanitary swage:
 Chemical wastewater,
 Industrial mining wastewater and urban mining mixed sewage,
etc.
 Heavy metals are brought to the soil by irrigative sewage and
are fixed in the soil in different ways.
 It causes heavy metals (Hg, Cd, Pb, Cr, etc.) to continually
accumulate in the soil year by year.
 Solid wastes to soils pathway
 There are a variety of solid wastes which have

complex composition.
 Of which mining and industrial solid waste
contamination is the most serious.
 When these wastes are in the process of being
governed through sunlight, raining and washing.
 Due to the high content of organic matter, nitrogen
and phosphorus in the sludge, soils become the main
places for soil sludge treatment
 Solid wastes can expand contamination scope easily
with the help of wind and water.
Contamination of wast
Agricultural supplies to soils pathway
 Fertilizers pesticides and mulch are important

agricultural inputs for agricultural production .
 The long-term excessive application has resulted in the
heavy metal contamination of soils.
 The vast majority of pesticides are organic compounds,
and a few are organic - inorganic compound or pure
mineral, and some pesticides contain Hg, As, Cu, Zn
and other heavy metals (Arao et al., 2010).
 Heavy metals are the most reported pollutants in
fertilizers.
Cont…
• Figure 1. Mine spoils called chat, near

the city of Joplin, Missouri.
Impact of heavy metal contamination of soils
Impact on soil microorganisms and
enzymatic activity
 Microbial activity and enzymatic activity of the

soil can sensitively reflect the quality of the soil.
 Microbial biomass of the soil was an important
indicator of determining the extent of soil
contamination.
 Microbial activity is inhibited significantly in the
heavy metal contaminated soil. Kandeler et al.
(1997) indicated that the microbial biomass in
the soil contaminated by Cu, Zn, Pb and other
Impact on the plants
 Low concentration of soil heavy metals,

regardless of necessary or unnecessary to
plants, will not affect the growth of plants in a
certain range ,but if the concentration is too
high, the content of heavy metals enriched by
the plant exceeds its tolerance threshold, and
thus the plant will be poisoned and it even leads
to death of the plant.
Cont...
 Research found that the growth of cabbage and
bean seedling under Cd concentration of 30 μ
mol/ L was inhibited: the root length decreased,
and the plant height and leaf area dropped (Qin
et al., 1994).
 Cd may interfere crop photosynthesis and
protein synthesis, and may cause membrane
damage,etc (Acar and Alshawabkeh,1993;Kale,
1993).
Impact on humans
 Existing research showed that heavy metals in

urban soils may go into the human body through
skin absorption and inhalation of dust, etc., and
thus directly damage, especially children's
health.
Remediation of Heavy Metal Contaminated
Soils
Engineering remediation
 Engineering remediation refers to using physical or chemical

methods to control heavy metal contamination of soils.
Replacement of contaminated soil, soil removal and soil

isolation
 Replacement of contaminated soil means adding large

amount of clean soil to cover on the surface of the
contaminated soil or to blend with the latter. Soil removal
refers to remove the contaminated soil and renew it with the
clean soil, which is necessary for the seriously contaminated
soil with little area.
Cont…
• Soil isolation means that to isolate the
contaminated soil from the uncontaminated soil,
but to completely remedy it still needs other
auxiliary engineering measures (Zheng et al.,
2002). All of these methods will cost large
amount of manpower and material resources, so
they can only be applied to small area of soils.
.
Soil leaching
 The principle of soil leaching is to wash the heavy metal

contaminated soil with specific reagents and thus remove the
heavy metal complex and soluble irons adsorbed on the solid
phase particles.
 By using this method, heavy metals are separated from the
soil,and heavy metals are then recycled from extracting solution.
Adsorption
Adsorption method is based on the fact that almost all heavy
metal ions can be fixed and adsorbed by clay mineral (bentonite,
zeolite, etc.), asteel slag, furnace slag, etc (Wang and Zhou, 2004).
Other methods
Other engineering methods include washing and
compounding, heat treatment, physical solidification,
chemical improvers, chemical curing lamp remediation,
etc.
Bioremediation
Phytoremediation
Phytoremediation is the direct use of living green
plants for in situ, or in place, removal, degradation, or
containment of contaminants in soils, sludge, sed
iments, surface water and groundwater.
Grow specific plants in the soil contaminated by heavy
metals.
Cont…
 These plants have the certain hyper-
accumulation ability for the contaminants
in the soil(accumulated mainly in the root
or above the root).
 When the plants are ripe or reach certain
enrichment level of heavy metals, remove
heavy metals in the contaminated soil
layer thoroughly by harvesting, burning
and curing plants.
Cont…
 Cont…
 Plants have been used to stabilize or remove
metals from soil and water.
 The three mechanisms used are
 phytoextraction, rhizofiltration, and
phytostabilization.
 Rhizofiltration is the adsorption onto plant roots
or absorption into plant roots of contaminants
that are in solution surrounding the root zone
(rhizosphere).
 Rhizofiltration is used to decontaminate
groundwater. Plants are grown in green houses
in water instead of soil.
Microbial remediation
 Microbial remediation refers to using some
microorganisms to perform the absorption (Xing et al.,
2003).
Animal remediation
 Some animals living in the soil (maggots, earthworms,
etc.) can take heavy metals in the soil.
 Wang et al.(2007) proved that when the concentration
of Cu was low in the soil, the activities and secretion of
earthworms could promote the absorption of Cu by
ryegrass.
CONCULSIONS
 Heavy metal contamination refers to the excessive

deposition of toxic heavy metals in the soil caused by
human activities and naturaly.
• Heavy metals in the soil include some significant metals
of biological toxicity, such as mercury (Hg), cadmium
(Cd), lead (Pb), chromium (Cr) and arsenic (As), etc.
• They also include other heavy metals of certain biological
toxicity, such as zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), and nickel (Ni),
sternum (Son), vanadium (V), and so on.
• Mining, manufacturing, and the use of synthetic products
(e.g. pesticides, paints, batteries, industrial waste, and
land application of industrial or domestic sludge) can
result in heavy metal contamination of urban and
agricultural soils.
Thank you !!

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COLLEGE OF DRY LAND AGRIHCULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES

PROGRAM: TROPIC AL LAND REASOURCES MANAGEMENT

GROUP ASSIGNMENT OF ENVIROMENTAL POLLUTION AND MANAGEMENT

DESTA ADENE cda/ptlr01/09

2. ENYEW ESUBALEW cda/ptlr02/09

3. GEBRE GIDEY cdr/ptlr03/09

Submitted To : Dr. RAJ

 heavy metals are metals or metalloids (elements that have

 Heavy metal contamination of soil is one of the most

 The ability of heavy metals to accumulate and cause toxicity

 Two of the main sources of heavy metal pollution

 Anthropogenic sources of heavy metal

 Air and water are polluted, the pollution problem can

Excess heavy metals in the soil originate from many

 Wastewater can be divided into several categories

 There are a variety of solid wastes which have

 Fertilizers pesticides and mulch are important

• Figure 1. Mine spoils called chat, near

 Microbial activity and enzymatic activity of the

 Low concentration of soil heavy metals,

 Existing research showed that heavy metals in

 Engineering remediation refers to using physical or chemical

Replacement of contaminated soil, soil removal and soil

 Replacement of contaminated soil means adding large

 The principle of soil leaching is to wash the heavy metal

 Heavy metal contamination refers to the excessive

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