Source Apportionment of Lead Contamination in Residential, Undisturbed, and Roadside Soil (Part II)

Lead (Pb) and antimony (Sb) concentrations in bulk soils and results of individual particle analysis were used to obtain apportionment estimates of identifiable sources of anthropogenic Pb contamination in residential and undisturbed soils. Soil was analyzed from residential and undisturbed wooded areas, an adjacent automobile battery manufacturing facility, and a roadside 2.4 km from the site. Sb in bulk soil was used in apportionment estimates because Sb occurred with Pb originating from the battery facility. Average Pb concentrations in roadside soil were used to obtain estimates of maximum Pb portions attributable to automobile exhaust in residential and undisturbed soils. Data from Pb-Sb-Sn particles and Pb-oxide particles provided apportionment estimates of Pb contamination similar to that derived from bulk soil concentrations. Estimates indicated most (> 80%) of the Pb contamination in residential and undisturbed wooded area soils originated from the neighboring battery facility. Less than a few percent of the Pb in the residential and undisturbed wooded area soils was naturally occurring.