Hi everyone,
I am trying to look for the maximum trace element concentrations that are allowed in soils in the USA. Do you know if such a regulation exist at the federal level?
Thank you immensely,
Xavier
Of course, the EPA website (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
) will help you find what you are looking for.
https://www.epa.gov/
Thank you C.A. (Kees) Kan and Safia Taleb for your answers which seem to indicate that the answer is easy to find! Now I must be blind or confused by the way the EPA website is organized but I cannot find any US document clearly indicating the trace element limits in US soils. Can you help me on this?
Dear Xavier
A simple search on the topic: heavy metals tolerances soil USA gave many hits
the first one being this: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs142p2_053279.pdf
So apparently it is not on the EPA but on the USDA site.
Dear C.A. (Kees) Kan ,thank you for looking deeper into it. The document you have found gives threshold values for sludges and products applied TO soils but my question is about trace element concentration limits IN soils... I am started to doubt wether the USA have such a regulation... EU countries, China, Brasil, Russia, India all have one so I would be surprised if the USA did not but what is clear is that if it exists, it is not easily accessible !
One more idea. Regarding contaminants, Europe favours the prevention approach, whereas the USA often takes the solution approach. This might also explain the differences.
You can use Dutch standards which used by UNEP hotspot assessement in Iraq
Florida has contaminant cleanup target levels (CTL) in rule. Florida Administrative Code Chapter 62-777 F.S. Table II gives values for soil. Hope this helps.
Yes you can check here.
EPA
https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-06/documents/epa-200.8.pdf
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