Soil washing definition
Soil washing means an ex-situ process to mechanically scrub soil to remove contaminants. Soft particles are separated from soil in an aqueous-based system. The wash water may be augmented with leaching agents, surfactants, pH adjustment or chelating agents.
Soil washing usually means off-site remediation, and ‘soil flushing’ usually means on-site remediation. We use ‘soil washing’ to cover both in vitro and in situ techniques.
Soil washing means the comingling of excavated soil with water (whether or not the water has been treated with a surfactant, pH adjuster or other chemical that increases its efficiency as a solvent) for the purposes of separating and removing contaminants from the soil.
Examples of Soil washing in a sentence
Possible remediation technologies for metals, TPH, VOCs (elthylbenzene and xylenes) and SVOC (benzo(a)pyrene) contaminated soil have been proposed: • Metals contaminated soil: Option 1: Soil washing Option 2: Electrokinetic Separation Option 3: Solidification / stabilization Among these remediation technologies, solidification / stabilization is considered as the most practical and cost-effective method to treat the metals contaminated soil on site.
Soil washing is discounted because the washing solution will require treatment or offsite disposal.