Speciation and mobility of lead in shooting range soils

Abstract

The mobility and bioavailability of lead (Pb) in seven military shooting range soils found in eastern and north eastern Botswana were studied using sequential extraction procedure. The different forms of Pb and their reactivity in the soil help explain their speciation, mobility and bioavailability in the environment. Mobility of Pb in the berm soils in all the seven shooting ranges was found to be over 90% implying high Pb lability. The bioavailability index of Pb was in the range 60-90%, an indication that most of the Pb can be available for plant uptake. Sequential extraction studies indicate that the partitioning of Pb was mostly confined to the carbonate compartment in all the shooting ranges. All the seven shooting ranges failed the Synthetic Precipitation Leaching Procedure (SPLP) with SPLP Pb concentrations exceeding United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) 0.015 mg/kg critical level of hazardous waste, posing a pollution threat to surface and groundwater.

Changes in soil properties and heavy metals concentration in soil of military shooting range in central Lithuania

“…3 accordance with those of Kelebemang et al (2017) whoshowed that in different shooting ranges pH value varied 2 from 6.81 to 8.69. Similar results were observed by Sanderson et al (2012): the pH of shooting range soil was 3 from 5.3 to 9.3.…”

“…The shooting area contains back ground levels of lead. Similar results have been found by Kelebemang et al (2017) and Sanderson et al (2012). The study shows that the majority of lead is concentrated in the backstop berm soil as it collects used bullets.…”

“…Similar results were observed by Sanderson et al (2012): the pH of shooting range soil was from 5.3 to 9.3. It is known that the pH can affect solubility and mobility of heavy metals in soil (Kelebemang et al, 2017).…”

“…Although, the limit concentrations of Pb, Cd and Ni were exceeded at several samples, in comparison with other research this shooting range was not highly contaminated. Islam and Park (2017) found 3436 mg/kg lead; the maximum concentration of lead that Kelebemang et al (2017) found in the soil of the shooting range was over 10,000 mg/kg. Even abandoned shooting range soil is contaminated with lead from 160 to 720 mg/kg (Rodriguez-Seijo et al 2016).…”

“…The highest concentration of lead in the shooting range was determined at the bottom of the backstop berm 21 (Fig. 3A "Berm 0" Kelebemang et al (2017) whoshowed that in different shooting ranges pH value varied 2 from 6.81 to 8.69. Similar results were observed by Sanderson et al (2012): the pH of shooting range soil was 3 from 5.3 to 9.3.…”