Notable case, Lommel, Vlaanderen (Limburg), Belgium
Lommel-Maatheide and the Campine (zinc smelters)
Maatheide / Kempen
The site of a pyrometallurgical zinc smelter that ran from 1904 to 1974 in the Belgian Campine, where the acid sandy soil had been left bare. A phytostabilisation experiment on three hectares began here in 1990, and phytoextraction with willow and poplar is tested on fields nearby.
Contaminants
Status
Contained
At Maatheide the contaminated top layer was excavated and stored in 2003–2004, while the Sibelco company extracted the quartz sand beneath; an industrial estate was built to the east (Dutch Wikipedia). The diffuse contamination of the region's farm soils remains.
Story
The Lommel smelter was built in 1904 and demolished in 1974. Its heavy metal emissions destroyed the vegetation and helped create an area of drifting sand. In the bare soil of the site zinc reached 16,000 mg/kg.
The zinc smelters of the Campine contaminated a whole region by atmospheric deposition: in north-eastern Belgium at least 280 km² of soil carries excess cadmium, zinc and lead.
Jaco Vangronsveld's group at the University of Hasselt has used the area as a field laboratory: first immobilising the metals with amendments and a grass cover on the industrial site, then growing short-rotation woody crops on contaminated fields to extract cadmium and zinc slowly.
Timeline
- 1904The zinc smelter is built.
- 1974The smelter is demolished.
- 1990The phytostabilisation trial on 3 ha begins.
- 2003The contaminated top layer is excavated (2003–2004).
Remediation
- 2003excavation and storageRemoval and storage of the contaminated top layer at Maatheide.
Plants and fungi at this site
PhytoremediationField scale, 1990–
Agrostis capillaris, Festuca rubra
In 1990 three hectares of bare, acid sandy soil at the former smelter were treated with beringite (a modified aluminosilicate from fluidised-bed burning of coal refuse) and composted municipal waste, then sown with metal-tolerant ecotypes of Agrostis capillaris and Festuca rubra.
Outcome A healthy plant cover developed; the water-extractable metal fraction in treated soil was up to 70 times lower than in untreated soil, and the soil's biological parameters also recovered.
- Vangronsveld J. et al., rehabilitation study at the Maatheide zinc smelter site with beringite and compost (repository record; title not verified, read via search extract), documentserver.uhasselt.be
- Lommel-Maatheide phytostabilisation case (repository record; title not verified, read via search extract), documentserver.uhasselt.be
PhytoremediationField scale
Salix spp., Populus spp.
On a Campine farm soil contaminated by atmospheric deposition (on average 6.5 mg/kg of cadmium and 377 mg/kg of zinc) eight willow clones were compared in short-rotation coppice; poplar clones in their second cycle, after six years' growth, were assessed on the same kind of site.
Outcome For willow a removal potential of 72 g of cadmium and 2.0 kg of zinc per hectare per year was estimated.
From the literature
Species that acted on one of this site's contaminants in at least one study. The list is automatic and takes no account of this site's soil, concentrations or climate.
Plants
- Agrostis capillarisCommon bentEvidence: field
- Arabidopsis halleriHaller's rockcressEvidence: field
- Cannabis sativaIndustrial hempEvidence: field
- Festuca rubraRed fescueEvidence: field
- Noccaea caerulescensAlpine pennycressEvidence: field
- Ricinus communisCastor beanEvidence: field
Fungi
- Paxillus involutusBrown roll-rimEvidence: greenhouse
- Rhizophagus irregularisEvidence: greenhouse
- Agaricus bisporusButton mushroomEvidence: laboratory
- Aspergillus nigerBlack mouldEvidence: laboratory
- Mucor circinelloidesEvidence: laboratory
- Oidiodendron maiusEvidence: laboratory
The rest are on the contaminant pages.
Nearby
Sources
- Maatheide, Wikipedia (nl), 2026
- Universiteit Hasselt Document Server, records 1942/2668, 1942/7018 and 1942/14914 (server unavailable when fetched; contents read via search extracts), Universiteit Hasselt
Draft compiled from public sources, not yet reviewed.