Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are known for their persistence as well as their hydrophobic and lipophobic nature. Widespread use has led to increasing prevalence of PFAS in the environment. Due to PFAS:s extensive spread and adverse health effects, remediation of PFAS-contaminated areas has increased in recent years, resulting in an increased demand for disposal of contaminated soil. To dispose waste at landfills in Sweden, certain criteria need to be met. However, for PFAS there are no specific guidelines and landfills therefore decide their own acceptance criteria. This can lead to varying requirements, potentially causing environmentally hazardous practices. The aim of this study was to survey the requirements applied by landfills, as well as investigate how different assessment bases affect the evaluation of PFAS-contaminated soil. The study was conducted both as a questionnaire sent to 80 landfills in Sweden, and as an analysis of test results from samples of PFAS- contaminated soil. The findings reveal varying information requirements, with common criteria including soil origin, presence of contaminants and analysis of PFAS when soil is suspected of contamination. Landfills also typically required documentation about the contaminated site, sampling plan and leachate tests when accepting PFAS-contaminated soil. Additionally, this study demonstrates that the evaluation of PFAS-contaminated soil can depend on the assessment basis used. The assessment based on toxic equivalents, may alter the risk valuation in comparison to those based on measured concentrations. To include commonly occurring PFAS, the analysis should include a minimum of PFAS11.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-216856 |
| Date | January 2023 |
| Creators | Holst Gustafsson, Maia |
| Publisher | Umeå universitet, Institutionen för ekologi, miljö och geovetenskap |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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