This document specifies a test, which is aimed at determining the leaching behaviour of inorganic and organic substances from a soil and soil-like materials. The method is a once-through up-flow percolation test under standardized conditions of flow rate. The material is leached under dynamic hydraulic conditions. The document has been developed to measure the release of inorganic and organic substances from soil and soil-like material as well as to produce eluates for subsequent ecotoxicological testing. For ecotoxicological testing, see ISO 15799[6] and ISO 17616[7]. The test results enable the distinction between different release patterns, for instance wash-out and release under the influence of interaction with the matrix, when approaching local equilibrium between material and leachant.
This test method produces eluates, which can subsequently be characterized by physical, chemical and ecotoxicological methods in accordance with existing standard methods. The results of eluate analysis are presented as a function of the liquid/solid (L/S) ratio. The test is not suitable for substances that are volatile under ambient conditions.
NOTE 1 Volatile organic substances include the low-molecular-weight substances in mixtures such as mineral oil.
NOTE 2 It is not always possible to optimize test conditions simultaneously for inorganic and organic substances and optimum test conditions can also vary between different groups of organic substances. Test requirements for organic substances are generally more stringent than those for inorganic substances. The test conditions suitable for measuring the release of organic substances will generally also be applicable to inorganic substances.
NOTE 3 Within the category of organic substances, a significant difference in behaviour exists between the more polar, relatively water-soluble compounds and apolar, hydrophobic organic substances (HOCs). In the latter case, mechanisms of release (e.g. particle-bound or dissolved ...