Evaluation of Organic and Inorganic Micropollutant Concentrations in Agricultural Soil used as Debris Storage Site after Great East Japan Earthquake

Abstract

On March 2011, Great East Japan Earthquake, a series of earthquakes struck Tohoku areas and derived about 20,000,000 metric tons of disaster debris (building materials, household appliances, furniture, and wood). To store and process those debris, agricultural fields had been used as emergency debris storage sites. Environmental contamination of agricultural soils by organic and inorganic micropollutants from those debris has been a public concern. To identify chemicals of concern in the soil, our research group used a novel analytical method for comprehensive monitoring of organic and inorganic micropollutants on the emerging situation. An automated identification and quantification system with gas chromatography mass spectrometry (AIQS-GC) was used for detection of organic micropollutants. Total concentrations of elements including Pb, Cd, Se, As, Cu, and Cr in agricultural soil samples collected before and after debris dumping showed 72 and 84 ng g^-1, and those were lower than regulatory standards on environmental soil. On the other hand, concentrations of total organic micropollutants in those samples which were before and after debris dumping showed 330 and 2,300 ng g^-1, respectively. Concentrations of organic micropollutants in the soil after dumping showed higher than those before use.