The results obtained in this study with a Podzolic redyellow
soil led to the conclusion that there is little potential
for chemicals to mobilize via water percolating through the
soil profile, resulting in contaminated groundwater. The
two approaches used to study metal mobility (lixiviation in
columns and adsorption isotherms) are redundant. The
results show that, after stabilization, the experimental
loading ratio of 33:67 textile sludge:soil (%v/v) (equivalent
to 85Mgha1) did not significantly increase the risk of
groundwater contamination, since only small amounts of
metals applied to the soil will percolate and almost all the
organic compounds will be biodegraded. Nevertheless,
phytotoxicity tests showed that fresh textile sludge is
phytotoxic to rocket, which lead to the recommendation
that textile sludge must be stabilized before soil application.