Overcoming obscurity
Soil science as a discipline must
oil science has a long and fer-
tile history in human civiliza-
tion. The relatively recent
2 awareness of the health risks
-.;ociated with land-applied wastes
has caused the environmental indus-
try to develop a growing interest in
soils, especially as a medium for the
transport of pollutants. Soil environ-
mental issues have been a major
topic for impact statements, risk as-
sessments, and feasibility studies
conducted by engineering and geo-
technical concerns in response to the
many regulations issued during the
past decade.
Engineering firms have been ea-
ger to enter this growing discipline.
These companies traditionally have
acquired good information on soil
properties related to the structural
integrity of buildings; however,
their knowledge about soil chemi-
cal and biological processes has
been limited until recently. Many
engineering firms have been instru-
mental in establishing protocols
and implementing standards in this
growing field during the 1980s and
should be recognized for their pio-
0013-936x/93/0927-813$04.00/0 8 1993 American Chemical Society
c plication in the environmental
Qi
neering efforts. My concern and ac-
ademic bias is that these same h s
are not tapping into an information
reservoir that has grown from exten-
sive scientific experience with envi-
ronmental problems of soils.
Soil science includes not only its
traditional role of improving crop
yields through the complete analysis
of soil and soil water, but also the de-
velopment of models and databases
vital to envitonmental remediation.
Some of the many contributions of
soil science to environmental fields
through its subdisciplines of soil
physics, soil chemistry, and soil mi-
crobiology are hydrogeological field
data and models for gas and liquid
transport through saturated and un-
saturated zones: the development of
thermodynamic models for charac-
terizing pollutants, as well as their
adsorption in the organic and inor-
ganic fractions of soils: and the veri-
fication of hazardous waste degrada-
tion by indigenous microorganisms.
The role of soil and environmen-
tal microbiology is just beginning to
be evaluated critically as an avenue
for soil and groundwater remedia-
Envimn. Sci. Technol.. Vol. 21, No. 5, 1993 813
accept some of the responsibility for
its obscurity and relative lack of ap-
ally f;nded roles. Academic and
governmental soil scientists are not
as used to venturing into new areas
and taking on new responsibilities
as are their engineering colleagues.
However, engineers are used to
done SO better than have soil scien-
science as solely an agronomic dis-
cipline would be a mistake, espe-
subsurface properties, as the many
examules of aouifer contamination
ucationd and research framework.
As is becoming more apparent, soil
and groundwater remediation is
subject to regional variation. Soil
scientists always have recognized
the regional differences in soil
properties; this is a principal reason
for the location of governmental
field stations where soil properties
are well documented and are avalu-
able resource for environmental
bench marks and experiments. Rec-
ognizing the different yet valuable
contributions the engineering and
soil science disciplines bring to en-
vironmental remediation would
help solve pressing soil environ-
mental problems more rapidly.
Michael Boyle re-
ceived his doctomte
in soil science from
the University of
California, Berke-
ley, where he taught
soil microbiology.
He has conducted
soil biogeochemis-
try research at UC
Riverside, Howard University, and the
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories. He is
currently a consultant on the applica-
tion of waste to land.