Removal of chlorinated pesticide contamination by soil washing with sole water

Chlorinated pesticide soil contamination still affects large territories due to past extensive use, poor solubility in water and scarce biodegradability of these agro-chemicals. In particular, this is noticeable for dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethanes and their derivatives, globally referred as DDX contaminants. Presently, containment or immobilisation is a dominant approach to limit contamination, and remediation has been tried mainly at laboratory scale with contradictory results. Soil washing has been reported as a possible remediation treatment, although environmental effects of employed synthetic co-solvents or surfactants remain unclear. A soil washing treatment with sole water has been set up at laboratory scale, obtaining promising results on a contaminated soil with DDX level of 5050 mg/kg.