Environmental Long Term Effects of Soil Pollution and its Remediation

Environmental Long Term Effects of Soil Pollution

When it comes to the environment itself, the toll of contaminated soil is even more dire. Soil that has been contaminated should no longer be used to grow food, because the chemicals can leech into the food and harm people who eat it.

If contaminated soil is used to grow food, the land will usually produce lower yields than it would if it were not contaminated. This, in turn, can cause even more harm because a lack of plants on the soil will cause more erosion, spreading the contaminants onto land that might not have been tainted before.

In addition, the pollutants will change the makeup of the soil and the types of microorganisms that will live in it. If certain organisms die off in the area, the larger predator animals will also have to move away or die because they've lost their food supply. Thus it's possible for soil pollution to change whole ecosystems

Effects of soil pollution in brief:

• pollution runs off into rivers and kills the fish, plants and other aquatic life

• crops and fodder grown on polluted soil may pass the pollutants on to the consumers

• polluted soil may no longer grow crops and fodder

• Soil structure is damaged (clay ionic structure impaired)

• corrosion of foundations and pipelines

• impairs soil stability

• may release vapours and hydrocarbon into buildings and cellars

• may create toxic dusts

• may poison children playing in the area

Control of soil pollution

The following steps have been suggested to control soil pollution. To help prevent soil erosion, we can limit construction in sensitive area. In general we would need less fertilizer and fewer pesticides if we could all adopt the three R's: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. This would give us less solid waste.

Reducing chemical fertilizer and pesticide use

Applying bio-fertilizers and manures can reduce chemical fertilizer and pesticide use.

Biological methods of pest control can also reduce the use of pesticides and thereby minimize soil pollution.

Reusing of materials

Materials such as glass containers, plastic bags, paper, cloth etc. can be reused at domestic levels rather than being disposed, reducing solid waste pollution.

Recycling and recovery of materials

This is a reasonable solution for reducing soil pollution. Materials such as paper, some kinds of plastics and glass can and are being recycled. This decreases the volume of refuse and helps in the conservation of natural resources. For example, recovery of one tonne of paper can save 17 trees.

Reforesting

Control of land loss and soil erosion can be attempted through restoring forest and grass cover to check wastelands, soil erosion and floods. Crop rotation or mixed cropping can improve the fertility of the land.

Solid waste treatment

Proper methods should be adopted for management of solid waste disposal. Industrial wastes can be treated physically, chemically and biologically until they are less hazardous. Acidic and alkaline wastes should be first neutralized; the insoluble material if biodegradable should be allowed to degrade under controlled conditions before being disposed.

As a last resort, new areas for storage of hazardous waste should be investigated such as deep well injection and more secure landfills. Burying the waste in locations situated away from residential areas is the simplest and most widely used technique of solid waste management. Environmental and aesthetic considerations must be taken into consideration before selecting the dumping sites.

Incineration of other wastes is expensive and leaves a huge residue and adds to air pollution. Pyrolysis is a process of combustion in absence of oxygen or the material burnt under controlled atmosphere of oxygen. It is an alternative to incineration. The gas and liquid thus obtained can be used as fuels. Pyrolysis of carbonaceous wastes like firewood, coconut, palm waste, corn combs, cashew shell, rice husk paddy straw and saw dust, yields charcoal along with products like tar, methyl alcohol, acetic acid, acetone and a fuel gas.

Natural land pollution:

Land pollution occurs massively during earth quakes, land slides, hurricanes and floods. All cause hard to clean mess, which is expensive to clean, and may sometimes take years to restore the affected area. These kinds of natural disasters are not only a problem in that they cause pollution but also because they leave many victims homeless.