Minimum Test Suite

Technical guidance documents (WM3, Appendix D; or Notice 2018/C 124/01, Annex 4) state you must test for all hazardous substances that you suspect are in your waste. Sampling plans should be utilise a minimum test suite and where other potentially hazardous substances are identified, these need to be added to the minimum suite.

Some of the determinands listed below [will shortly] allow HazWasteOnline to better guide the classifier as to what may or may not be in their soil; for example ruling out worst case chromates because there is no chromium(VI).

17 05 soil (including excavated soil from contaminated sites), stones and dredging spoil

Total metals

• antimony (Sb)
• arsenic (As)
• barium (Ba)
• cadmium (Cd)
• chromium (Cr)
• copper (Cu)
• lead (Pb)
• mercury (Hg)
• molybdenum (Mo)
• nickel (Ni)
• selenium (Se)
• zinc (Zn)
• hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI))

Soluble metals

• antimony (Sb)
• arsenic (As)
• barium (Ba)
• cadmium (Cd)
• chromium (Cr)
• copper (Cu)
• lead (Pb)
• mercury (Hg)
• molybdenum (Mo)
• nickel (Ni)
• selenium (Se)
• zinc (Zn)

Anions/species

• total sulphate SO₄
• soluble sulphate SO₄
• total phosphate (not “orthophosphate” or soluble phosphates)
• speciated chromium – total Cr(VI) and Cr(III) by calculation

General

• moisture
• removed material (eg “non-grindables” or “inert” materials like lumps metal, stones etc
• pH (tested on an as-received soils)
• acid/alkali reserve (if concrete fragments present)
• PAHs (16 US EPA) – require individual concentrations (not “Total PAH”). LOD must be <0.1 mg/kg or better)

Hydrocarbons

“TPH” tests covers both petroleum and non-petroleum hydrocarbons. Petroleum hydrocarbons refers to just those hydrocarbons produced from the refining of crude oil, while (in the case of soils), non-petroleum hydrocarbons include the humic substances.

As all the labs use different terminology for their “TPH” tests, we are referring to suitable tests using the HWOL Acronym System. Read this document if you want to understand the differences between the various “TPH” tests.

To determine which “TPH” test(s) a particular lab is offering, ask them to provide the HWOL Acronyms for their tests.

1] Hydrocarbons covering the gasoline range >C5 to C10

• HS_1D_Total or HS_MS_Total

2] All hydrocarbons in the range C10 to C40

• EH_1D_Total or EH_2D_Total
• interpretation
• chromatogram
• bands or fractions eg C35-C40 are optional