Analysis of Contaminants Found from Soils in the Abandoned Railroad Sites

Abstract

Recently, reconstruction of abandoned railroad stations and railroad beds are increasingly taking place in Korea. Soil remediation is necessary for the eco-friendly development. Soil found in abandoned railroad sites typically contaminated with heavy oils, which are low volatile petroleum products and less decomposable in nature. The objective of this study is to analyze those contaminants and contamination levels of the soils collected from an abandoned railroad bed located in Seoul, Korea. Heavy oils were extracted from contaminated soils using an organic solvent mixture of methanol and dichloromethane (1:2, v/v). Extracted solvent were analyzed qualitatively by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and qualitatively using high performance liquid chromatography. It was found that the abandoned railroad bed soil was mainly contaminated by heavy oils such as bunker C oil, which was confirmed by FT-IR spectra of petroleum oil products such as gasoline, diesel, kerosene, JP-8, bunker C oil, and lubricants. Benzo [a] antracene was found from the contaminated soil and its level was as high as 11.45 mg/kg, and other polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were trivial.