Effect of Different Industrial Wastes on Soil Quality at Different Locations of Egypt

To declare the effect of pollution by industrial emissions on the agricultural land in some industrial areas of Egypt, soil and wastewater samples were collected from five locations surroundings to industrial factories. Samples of each site were taken to the windward at 0, 500, 1000, 1500 and 2000 meter away from the boundary of each factory. The obtained results of chemical analysis can be summarized as follows: 1. The quality of water samples collected from all sites are within the permissible limits for irrigation except this from El-Nasr company of chemical and fertilizers at Talkha which had excessive loaded with organic contaminants. 2. The concentrations of some heavy metals (Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu and Pb) in the tested soil samples decreased significantly with increasing the distance away from the source of pollution. Also, dominance of such heavy metals in each site followed the decreasing order: Fe > Mn > Zn > Cu > Pb. These values were much higher than that obtained in the virgin soils (non-polluted soils). 3. The values of soil respiration (microbile activity in the soil samples) significantly increased as the distance from the source of pollution increase at all locations under investigation. An opposite trend was marked between available heavy metals content and microbile activity (r = -0.94)