Effect of Biosolids Processing on Lead Bioavailability in an Urban Soil

Abstract

The potential for biosolids products to reduce Pb availability in soil was tested on a high Pb urban soil with biosolids from a treatment plant that used different processing technologies. High Fe biosolids compost and high Fe + lime biosolids compost from other treatment plants were also tested. Amendments were added to a Pb‐contaminated soil (2000 mg kg −1 Pb) at 100 g kg −1 soil and incubated for 30 d. Reductions in Pb bioavailability were evaluated with both in vivo and in vitro procedures. The in vivo study entailed feeding a mixture of the Pb‐contaminated soil and AIN93G Basal Mix to weanling rats. Three variations of an in vitro procedure were performed as well as conventional soil extracts [diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA) and Ca(NO 3 ) 2 ] and sequential extraction. Addition of the high Fe compost reduced the bioavailability of soil Pb (in both in vivo and in vitro studies) by 37 and 43%, respectively. Three of the four compost materials tested reduced Pb bioavailability more than 20%. The rapid in vitro (pH 2.3) data had the best correlation with the in vivo bone results ( R = 0.9). In the sequential extract, changes in partitioning of Pb to Fe and Mn oxide fractions appeared to reflect the changes in in vivo Pb bioavailability. Conventional extracts showed no changes in metal availability. These results indicate that addition of 100 g kg −1 of high Fe and Mn biosolids composts effectively reduced Pb availability in a high Pb urban soil.