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Heavy metals and benzo[a]pyrene in soils from construction and demolition rubble

  • Soils and Sediments in Urban and Mining Areas
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

Rubble is an important component of urban soils worldwide, especially in Europe. In Berlin, Germany, rubble-composed soils cover about 17 % of the total city area and 60 % of the inner city. This study assesses the contamination status of rubble soil, particularly for heavy metals and benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P).

Methods

The results of 164 soil surveys in Berlin, including more than 2,000 analyzed soil samples of topsoils, rubble subsoils, and natural material, have been analyzed for typical contamination patterns.

Results

The concentrations of all contaminants range over several orders of magnitude and follow negatively skewed log-normal distribution functions. For rubble-containing subsoils, proportions of 34, 71, 67, 68, 74, and 61 % of the analyzed samples exceed precautionary values of the German Soil Conservation Act, regarding Cd, Pb, Cu, Zn, Hg, and B[a]P, respectively. Similar results were found for topsoils. A minor part of the soils is contaminated with Cd, while Pb and Hg are the most typical contaminants of rubble material. In contrast to topsoils and rubble-containing subsoils, the majority of the natural subsoil material is not contaminated. Only low to moderate positive correlations were found between the contaminants.

Conclusions

Compared to natural soil material, rubble-containing soil materials show clearly elevated concentrations of heavy metals and B[a]P. As the most characteristic contaminants for rubble are Pb and Hg, these heavy metals should first be analyzed as proxy contaminants.

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Acknowledgments

Our thanks go to the German Science Foundation DFG, which has supported our project (We 1125/26-1) and the Berlin Senate Department for Urban Development and the Environment for providing the soil survey data sets. We would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology, Soil Conservation, Technische Universität Berlin, Ernst-Reuter-Platz 1, 10587, Berlin, Germany

    Stefan Abel, Thomas Nehls, Beate Mekiffer & Gerd Wessolek

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  1. Stefan Abel
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  2. Thomas Nehls
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  3. Beate Mekiffer
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  4. Gerd Wessolek
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Correspondence to Stefan Abel.

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Responsible editor: Przemysław Charzyński

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Abel, S., Nehls, T., Mekiffer, B. et al. Heavy metals and benzo[a]pyrene in soils from construction and demolition rubble. J Soils Sediments 15, 1771–1780 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-014-0959-4

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