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Soil contamination by tar in the alluvial sediments: case study of the brownfield remediation project in the Czech Republic

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Abstract

The paper aims to analyse the remediation of soils contaminated by black coal tar and other contaminants in relation to risk limits in the different geological environments. The research was implemented as a case study in one of the most expensive remediation projects of contaminated soils in alluvial sediments, in the locality of a former coking plant Karolina in an industrial city of Ostrava in north-east of the Czech Republic. Based on the level of risk, three contaminated geological environments (layers) were selected, which were examined for chemical limits that must be complied with after remediation using ex situ thermal desorption. Around 1.5 million tons (10,720 wagons of 72 m3 and 14 m) of contaminated soils were dug out, which were subsequently treated ex situ by means of thermal desorption. In total, 12,200 t of contaminants were removed, among which non-polar extractable substances (NPES) amounted to 67.94% (8289 t), benzene to 12.25% (1494 t), naphthalene to 11.27% (1375 t), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) to 6.43% (784 t), benzo(a)pyrene to 1.11% (135 t), phenol to 0.82% (99 t), arsenic to 0.16% (20 t) and mercury to 0.02% (3 t). The most hazardous in terms of contact with humans was the top layer of quaternary alluvial fine-grained soils (3664 t of removed contaminants, 30% of all contamination—layer I). However, the most contaminated layer was the lowest, permeable layer of quaternary alluvial gravel sediments (7479 t of removed contaminants, 61% of all contamination—layer III). The contamination penetrated into the highly permeable layer due to gravity and could not migrate further due to the abundance of impermeable Miocene grey–blue clay.

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Acknowledgements

Authors thank the Faculty of Mining and Geology, VSB – Technical University of Ostrava for the support of the project (SP2018/33) which is the base of this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Mining and Geology, Department of Geological Engineering, VŠB-Technical University of Ostrava, 17 listopadu 15, 708 33, Ostrava, Czech Republic

    Marian Marschalko, Petr Vicherek, Michaela Vicherková, Jan Kubáč & Shuran Yang

  2. Faculty of Engineering, Department of Geological Engineering, Cumhuriyet University, 58140, Sivas, Turkey

    Isik Yilmaz

  3. Faculty of Geodesy, Geospacial and Civil Engineering, Institute of Geodesy, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Heweliusza 5, 10-724, Olsztyn, Poland

    Dariusz Popielarczyk

  4. Tomáš Kempa Hydrogeology, Ivana Sekaniny 1802/11, 708 00, Ostrava, Czech Republic

    Tomáš Kempa

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  1. Marian Marschalko
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  2. Petr Vicherek
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  4. Isik Yilmaz
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  7. Tomáš Kempa
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  8. Shuran Yang
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Correspondence to Isik Yilmaz.

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Marschalko, M., Vicherek, P., Vicherková, M. et al. Soil contamination by tar in the alluvial sediments: case study of the brownfield remediation project in the Czech Republic. Environ Earth Sci 79, 52 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-019-8791-1

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