The Soil Pollutants

We consider as a pollutant any chemical of natural or anthropogenic origin which accumulates in the soil medium and changes the natural soil equilibrium, as a result of human activity. A modern society, however, cannot be developed without the use of natural and synthetic compounds which may be added to the various ecosystems. The art of safeguarding the environment consists of minimizing the amount of out-system compounds reaching the land surface and restraining as much as possible the pollution-generating sites by controlling their disposal habits. This chapter will deal with the pollutants reaching the land surface, with emphasis on their chemical structure and properties, which in the final state control their behavior in the soil. For didactic reasons, we have grouped the soil pollutants into inorganic, inorganic-organically bound compounds, and organic toxic compounds. This chapter will not include tabular data of the properties of the soil pollutants, but only a blend of illustrative characteristics of the major pollutants reaching the soil porous media.