Partitioning of heavy metals in podzol soils contaminated by mine drainage waters, Dalarna, Sweden

The discharge of acidic mine drainage waters onto a hillslope in Dalarna, central Sweden, has lead to the contamination of the podzol soils with Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb, Zn and sulfate. Samples from contaminated and reference soils have been collected for chemical and mineralogical analyses. Jarosite is identified by x-ray diffraction analysis as a precipitate in the upper horizons (A, E, B) of the contaminated soils, where the soil acidity (pH(KCl) similar to 2.6) promotes jarosite stability. The sequential chemical extraction of soil samples indicates that, in the reference A horizon, Cu, Pb, Ni and Zn are bound primarily to cation exchange sites and organic matter. In the A horizon of the contaminated soils closest to the rock dump, metal partitioning is dominated by the Fe oxide fractions, despite the high organic matter content; Pb is almost completely bound to crystalline Fe oxides, possibly adsorbed to Fe oxides or occuring in a jarosite solid solution. In the reference B and C horizons, Cu, Ni and Zn are primarily adsorbed/coprecipitated in the Fe oxide fractions, while Pb remains with a large fraction bound to organic matter. In the Fe-rich B horizon of the contaminated soils, the partitioning of the metals in cation exchange sites and to organic matter has greatly increased relative to the reference soils, resulting from the mobilization of organo-metal complexes down the profile.