A protocol to estimate the release of anthropogenic hydrocarbons from contaminated soils

An operational protocol, appropriate for a tier 1 or tier 2 type relative risk evaluation of a site that has polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) or petroleum hydrocarbon impacted soils, was developed to estimate the fraction of anthropogenic hydrophobic hydrocarbons that will be released rapidly from such soils. The development of this protocol used over 400 datasets from 40 different field samples to establish and verify the operational protocol. The datasets resulted from four-month kinetic desorption studies of these field samples. Based on the chemicals evaluated, the protocol has greatest application to two, three, and four ring-PAH and to diesel range aliphatic hydrocarbons. The protocol is a simple batch desorption analysis that uses established methods and is conducted for 7 d. The protocol results were verified with specific correlation relationships (r2 = 0.81 to 0.96) to estimate the rapidly releasing fraction (F value) that is obtained in a full, four-month chemical release evaluation.