Laboratory treatability testing of soils contaminated with lead and PCBs using particle-size separation and soil washing

A soil treatability study was conducted using particle-size separation and soil washing to reduce the volume of material contaminated with polychlorin ated biphenyls (PCBs) and lead at a Superfund site. Soil washing using surf actant was effective at removing 95% of PCBs into fine material and residua l wash water. Results indicate that almost 80% of the material contaminated with up to 140 mg/kg PCBs could be treated to concentrations below 10 mg/k g using soil washing with surfactant. There did not appear to be a differen ce in Ead removal using either particle size separation or soil washing, al though the lead data have high uncertainty because of soil heterogeneity. L ead concentrations in soil were reduced from as high as 1700 to less than o r equal to 150 mg/kg and from 560 to less than or equal to 220 mg/kg in abo ut half of the material using particle size separation. (C) 1999 Elsevier S cience B.V. All rights reserved.