Plenary Lecture
Heavy Metal Contamination of Soils and Remediation Technologies
Associate Professor Dilek Turer
Department of Geological Engineering
Hacettepe University
Turkey
E-mail: dturer@hacettepe.edu.tr
Abstract: Soils can contain heavy metals naturallybecause of their metal rich source rock but the main reason for the high concentrations observed in soils is the anthropogenic sources. These sources are mine tailing, usage of leaded gasoline and paints, pesticides, fertilizers, and industrial wastes. The most commonly found heavy metals in contaminated sites are lead, zinc, copper, chromium, nickel, and mercury. Contaminated soils can result in some health problems in humans through breathing of contaminated soils as small dust particles in the air when they are disturbed and also through food chain and contaminated groundwater.Besides isolation of the contaminated soils as a method to prevent the mobility of the heavy metals there are many other techniques that are either trying to remove or fix the heavy metals in the soils, described in the literature. In this lecture, basics of these techniques (immobilization by solidification/stabilization, extraction by soil washing and electrokinetic treatment and others) and the results of the laboratory workon solidification and electrokinetic treatment carried by the speaker will be presented.
Brief Biography of the Speaker: Assoc. Prof. Dr D. Turer holds a bachelor degree in Geological Engineering from Middle East Technical University (TURKEY), MScand PhD in Geology (2000) from the University of Cincinnati (USA). She has been a faculty member of Geological Engineering Department of Hacettepe University (TURKEY) since 2001. Her research interests includeheavy metal contamination of soils, stabilization/solidification technologies, and environmental geology. She has 10 publications in highly rated ISI journals and 17 in conference proceedings.