Pollution Research Paper

CHEMICAL POOLS OF LEAD IN SLUDGE – TREATED SOILS

GEETA KUMARI, S.K. THAKUR, S. TIWARI AND S.B. PANDEYA

Abstract

In order to rationalize the use of city sewage sludge in agricultural land as source of nutrition to the crop and to prevent the associated potential toxicity hazards due to contamination of soils with sludge borne lead, a laboratory experiment was conducted to understand fractionation and pathway analysis in chemical pools. The fractionation of Pb in various chemical pools suggested the predominance of organically complexed lead in sludge treated soil. All the chemical pools, however, were in equilibrium with each other. The path analysis determining dependence of DTPA – extractable Pb in the soils indicated that the organically complexed Pb is not directly contributing to the available pool of Pb in soils, and the pathway of its conversion in available form is through residual form of Pb in soils