Soil Guideline Values

UK Soil Guideline Values (SGVs) provide a coherent and consistent way to assess risk to human health from soil contamination ^[1] . The values can be used to assess land in conjunction with UK legislation: Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and the Town and Country Planning Acts. Any decisions using these values can be seen as being based on sound science. This has become increasingly important as classing land as contaminated can blight an area and cause public concern over the health effects.

Additional recommended knowledge

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These soil guideline values completely supersede the old ICRCL (Interdepartmental Committee on the Redevelopment of Contaminated Land) values. Values are compiled by modelling human exposure with the use of the land known as Contaminated Land Exposure Assessment (CLEA). This creates separate values for:

• Residential (with or without vegetable growing, allotments
• Commercial / industrial

The first values were published by the Environment Agency on the 2002-03-14 and totalled 10. There are plans for more to be published in the future as research projects are completed ^[2].

The current Soil Guideline Values are (all amounts are in mg kg^-1 dry weight soil):

SGV1 Arsenic
Residential with plant uptake 20
Allotments 20
Residential without plant uptake 20
Commercial / Industrial 500

SGV3 Cadmium pH 6 pH 7 pH 8
Residential with plant uptake and allotments 1 2 8
Residential without plant uptake 30 30 30
Commercial 1400 1400 1400

SGV4 Chromium
Residential with plant uptake 130
Allotments 130
Residential without plant uptake 200
Commercial / Industrial 5000

SGV5 Inorganic Mercury
Residential with plant uptake 8
Allotments 8
Residential without plant uptake 15
Commercial /. Industrial 480

SGV7 Nickel
Residential with plant uptake 50
Allotments 50
Residential without plant uptake 75
Commercial / Industrial 5000

SGV8 Phenol 1%SOM 2.5% SOM 5% SOM
Residential with plant uptake 78 150 280
Allotment 80 155 280
Residential without plant uptake 21,900 34,400 37,300
Commercial / Industrial 21,900 43,000 78,100

SGV9 Selenium
Residential with plant uptake 35
Allotment 35
Residential without plant uptake 260
Commercial/ Industrial 8000

SGV10 Lead
Residential with plant uptake 450
Allotments 450
Residential without plant uptake 450
Commercial / Industrial 750

SGV15 Toluene 1%SOM 2.5% SOM 5% SOM
Residential with plant uptake 3 7 14
Allotments 31 73 140
Residential without plant uptake 3 8 15
Commercial / Industrial 150 350 680

SGV16 Ethylbenzene 1%SOM 2.5% SOM 5% SOM
Residential with plant uptake 9 21 41
Allotments 18 43 85
Residential without plant uptake 16 41 80
Commercial / Industrial 48,000 48,000 48,000

References

1. ^ Environment Agency, 2002, http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/subjects/landquality/113813/672771/675330/?version=1&lang=_e Environment Agency Publications
2. ^ Environment Agency, 2002, http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/subjects/landquality/113813/672771/675330/?version=1&lang=_e Environment Agency Publications

Environment Agency *Environment Agency Publications