Impacts of iron and steel making facilities on soil quality

The iron and steelworks at Rooty Hill and Port Kembla, NSW, Australia may be emitting heavy and trace metals to the environment. However, their emissions on soil have remained unstudied. This study investigates the trace metals and heavy metals in soils near the two steelworks as compared to the background site at Macquarie Park and also whether the soils from these sites exceed the NEPM 2011 guideline. The proximate, acid extractable elements analysis and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) were performed for soil analysis. Acid extractable elements analysis for the trace metals and heavy metals showed no considerable difference in trace metals at all sites. However, there was higher concentration of chromium, copper, lead, nickel, zinc, titanium and iron at Port Kembla as compared to Rooty Hill. Rooty Hill had higher concentration of manganese. Furthermore, all the sites had lower concentrations of trace metals and heavy metals with reference to the NEPM guideline 2011, except for molybdenum, titanium and iron which lack guidelines. This study suggests that soils near Port Kembla steelworks have higher heavy metal concentrations as compared to Rooty Hill. Also, the guideline should be established for all heavy metals including molybdenum, titanium and iron due to their high concentrations in soils.