Evaluation of organic pollution from leaching water of industrial wasteland: A Case Study for Kenadsa region (Algerian South West)

Cessation of coal mining from the kenadsa coalfield (algeria) resulted on the appearance of large contaminated surfaces left in a wasteland. persistent organic pollutants (pops) mainly characterized by priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (pahs) have never been addressed for saharan soil. the objective of this study is to clearly identify and quantify the site pollutants; to better inform and envisage cleaning approaches that reduce potential adverse risks and impacts on the environment as part of a planned urbanization project. the organic matter of the contaminated soil of kenadsa is characterized by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry and μftir spectroscopy. the aromatic fraction is marked by a preponderance (85.1%) of aromatic hydrocarbons of low molecular weight (2-3 cycles). in addition,compounds containing more than four benzene units are hardly observed in the waters of the leaching. among the lighter compounds,we identified a proportion of 13.7% oxygenated especially alkyl compounds dibenzofurans and 1.2% of aliphatic hydrocarbons. by spectrophotometry (μftir),saturated hydrocarbons are characterized by a smaller proportion of light n-alkanes. polar compounds from waters of the leaching are dominated by oxygenated aromatic compounds. overall,the results show that the kenadsa site is much polluted with these aromatic hydrocarbons,essentially the pahs.