Ecological risk assessment of sewage sludge from municipal wastewater treatment plants: a case study.

The aim of this study was to characterize sewage sludge from mechanical-biological wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in terms of total concentrations of heavy metals (HMs) and their distribution. Moreover, HM mobility, stability and ecological risk were assessed by calculating the mobility factor (MF), the reduced partition index (Ir) and the ecological risk index (ERI). Hierarchical cluster analysis (CA) was used to group the HMs in the sludges on the basis of their MF, Ir and ERI. The concentration of HMs decreased in the following order: Zn > Cu > Ni > Pb > Cd. HM mobility, as indicated by the MF values, was as follows: 18.7%-30.6% (Zn), 8.1%-36.4% (Ni), 6.8%-11.1% (Cu), 3.2%-32.2% (Pb) and 0% (Cd). Based on the average Ir values, the stability of the metals in the sludge increased in this order: Zn (0.23)=Pb (0.23)

Suitability of environmental indices in assessment of soil remediation with conventional and next generation washing agents.

Remediation of soils contaminated with metal must ensure high efficiency of metals removal, reduce bioavailability of residual metals and decrease ecological risk. Thus, for comprehensive environmental soil quality assessment, different indices must be used. In this study, suitability of 8 indices was used for soil highly contaminated with Cu (7874.5 mg kg-1), moderately with Pb (1414.3 mg kg-1) and low with Zn (566.1 mg kg-1), washed in batch and dynamic conditions with both conventional and next-generation washing agents. The following indices were used: modified contamination factor (mCf), modified contamination factor degree (mCdeg), mobility factor (MF), reduced partition index (IR), potential ecological risk factor (Er,Z), modified potential ecological risk factor (Er,m), potential ecological risk index (RIZ) and modified ecological risk index (RIm). For mCf, mCdeg and IR own classification scale was proposed. It was proven that most useful indices for assessment of soil pollution with metals were mCf and mCdeg. The mCf together with the IR allow to simultaneous assessment of soil pollution and stability for individual metals. These indices were appropriate for soil contaminated with different concentrations of metals, washed under both hydrodynamic conditions using various washing agents and different effectiveness of metals removal. Thus, they may be considered as most useful for evaluation of remediation method, feasibility of washing agent and assessing soil quality after washing.