Evolution of bioavailable copper and major soil cations in contaminated soils treated with ethylenediaminedisuccinate: a two-year experiment.

This study evaluates the long-term behavior of metals in soils treated with ethylenediaminedisuccinate for remediation purposes. The addition of the chelant led to a significant increase of water-extractable copper, iron, aluminum contents and their uptake by poplar. Increased concentrations of the metals were present in the soil solution even after the 2 years of the experiment (up to a 30-, 170- and 270-fold increase for copper, iron and aluminum, respectively). Therefore, soils treated with chelants must be monitored not only for the targeted metal concentrations but also for major soil cations originating from chelant-induced dissolution of soil oxides.