Methods for remediation of metal-contaminated soils:: Preliminary results

Contamination of soils by heavy metals is one of the environmental problems that the scientific community faces today. Such soils are difficult to treat because the heavy metals cannot be destroyed. Moreover, they are usually bonded with other contaminants, in particular organic ones. The presence of these organic pollutants can make the removal of metals from soils substantially more complicated. One way of coping with the problem which has been studied in recent years is the use of fixing agents which make the heavy metals unavailable to the plants, or prevent their leaching towards the groundwater. Inorganic fixing agents in particular have been tested and found to be suitable, but some organic ones can also be used, at least as temporary fixing materials. This paper gives preliminary results on remediation techniques using compost and Trichoderma viride Pers.:Fr. as heavy metal fixing agents. [GRAPHICS]