ABSTRACT
Soil washing is an ex situ water-based process that separates contaminants from the clean soil matrix. To achieve separation and physical sizing, gravity separation and attrition scrubbing are used. All process water is recycled through a closed-loop treatment system, minimizing water consumption and disposal requirements. The placement of mining equipment on mobile equipment skids provided an economical and functional separation system for the full-scale remediation of a hypothetical contaminated site. This system was a considerable improvement over the design and operation of the gravity pilot plant used in the demonstration. The soil washing technology is applicable for the treatment of many heavy metal contaminated wastes. Generally, the process is tolerant of normal swings in soil particle size. Potential problems arise if the soil exhibits wide swings in the coarse material content. Soil washing technology provides an economic method of removing lead bullets and particles from firing range soils, and thereby decreasing quantity of material requiring further treatment or disposal off-site.
