Stabilization and remediation of heavy metal-contaminated soils in China: insights from a decade-long national survey

Abstract

Recently, enterprises and industries associated with intense pollution have been relocated in China, leaving behind abandoned polluted sites. Consequently, stabilization has attracted unprecedented attention and rapid development. However, too much focus has been placed on practicality and short-term effectiveness, whereas long-term effectiveness and sustainability concerns have been overlooked. The present study reports the findings of a national survey administered to stakeholders involved in soil stabilization projects over a decade to determine the pollution characteristics of industrial sites and current utilization status of stabilization technologies in China. One-hundred and fifty soil stabilization projects surveyed revealed that among 29% of chemical industry remained sites, 96.7% of the sites were heavily polluted with heavy metals and metalloids, mainly in the forms of lead, arsenic, and chromium. Our analyses of soil reuse methods revealed that landfilling was the primary strategy of soil disposal following stabilization and remediation. In addition, the reuse of treated soils is preferred to landfill waste treatment. Therefore, from the perspective of economy and reducing landfill loads, environmental management measures should be adopted based on the development objectives of different regions to avoid the failure of stabilization treatments and reapplication and over-repair problems, with the aim of establishing an evaluation method of "site-specific, analysis-specific" evaluation method.

Keywords: Environmental monitoring; Heavy metal; Remediation; Remediation practices; Soil pollution; Stabilization.