Sorbent amendment as a remediation strategy to reduce PFAS mobility and leaching in a contaminated sandy soil from a Norwegian firefighting training facility

Summary

Aqueous film-forming foams (AFFF) containing poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) used for firefighting have led to the contamination of soil and water at training sites. The unique physicochemical properties of PFAS results in environmental persistency, threatening water quality and making remediation of such sites a necessity. This work investigated the role of sorbent amendment to PFAS contaminated soils in order to immobilise PFAS and reduce mobility and leaching to groundwater. Soil was sampled from a firefighting training facility at a Norwegian airport and total and leachable PFAS concentrations were quantified. Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) was the most dominant PFAS present in all soil samples (between 9 and 2600 μg/kg). Leaching was quantified using a one-step batch test with water (L/S 10). PFOS concentrations measured in leachate water ranged between 1.2 μg/L and 212 μg/L. Sorbent amendment (3%) was tested by adding activated carbon (AC), compost soil and montmorillonite to selected soils. The extent of immobilisation was quantified by measuring PFAS concentrations in leachate before and after amendment. Leaching was reduced between 94 and 99.9% for AC, between 29 and 34% for compost soil and between 28 and 40% for the montmorillonite amended samples. Sorbent + soil/water partitioning coefficients (KD) were estimated following amendment and were around 8 L/kg for compost soil and montmorillonite amended soil and ranged from 1960 to 16,940 L/kg for AC amended soil. The remediation of AFFF impacted soil via immobilisation of PFAS following sorbent amendment with AC is promising as part of an overall remediation strategy.