Assessment of heavy metals remobilization by fractionation: comparison of leaching tests applied to roadside sediments

The pollution emitted by traffic activities and road maintenance is an area of great interest as contaminants can be transported to roadside sediments and pose a risk to environmental and human health. In the presentwork, deposited pollution in roadside sediments has been assessed by sampling along a highly traveled highway in Barcelona and the surrounding area. The available amounts of the heavy metals was determined by applying different leaching tests and calculating the concentration enrichment ratio (CER) and the environmental concentration guideline values (ECG). To gain information on the heavy metals (HMs) fractionation, the sequential extraction scheme (SES), established by the Standard Measurement and Testing (SM&T), was implemented, and the results were compared with those obtained by single leaching tests. An anthropogenic enhancement of certain metals was observed after considering both the CER and ECG values. However, if only ECG values were considered, an overestimation of the anthropogenically enhanced pollutants was obtained due to disregarding geochemical and particle size variability. CER values provide a more realistic assessment by determining different levels of anthropogenic impact. Thus, CER values suggest a minimum anthropogenic apportion for metals such as Cd, Cr, and Ni, whereas different situations from significant to extreme anthropogenic contribution were observed for Zn, Pb, and Cu. These results have been complemented by other leaching tests that minimize the time-consuming environmental evaluation. In this study, HCI extraction produces suitable results for a quick screening since they correlate well with the corresponding SES: Cu(r2 = 0.798), Pb(r2 = 0.958) and Zn(r2 = 0.901). Mild extractants have been observed to be limited to highly polluted samples due to their low leaching power. The information obtained following this procedure helps to identify hazardous areas that need a remedial strategy.