influence of illegal waste dumping sites of north-west part of barlinek community on heavy metals content in soils

The in-depth analysis of the soil samples study included 6 from 17 catalogued illegal waste dumps localized in the Barlinek Commune (Gmina Barlinek) area. The samples were taken from the middle part of each waste dump and at 5 meter distance toward north and south directions. In the collected material the pH values and concentration of lead, zinc, cadmium, cobalt, manganese, nickel, chromium, iron, copper and mercury were determined. The results of laboratory analysis were compared with current standards (Regulation of the Minister of Environment from 9th September 2002 on soil quality standards and quality standards of soil - Journal of Laws 2002 No 165, item 1359) and with the soils classification by the content of trace elements, according to Kabata-Pendias et al. The reason of diversified content of heavy metals in the collected soils samples from different waste dumps is various morphological composition of deposited waste. Nonetheless, waste landfilled on illegal dumps were not significantly influencing the levels of soil contamination with heavy metals. The concentration of Hg, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, Zn, Fe qualifies those soils to geochemical natural levels of heavy metals content. Nevertheless, cadmium was the element, which concentration were most often (21 times) exceeded.