This review explores the issue of surface placement of drill cuttings waste (DC) and its environmental consequences. Special focus is given to the DC detrimental effects on soils and methods for disturbed lands restoring. The DC contains oil and oil products (up to 7%), mineral salts (up to 16.8%), and heavy metal compounds (up to 6%). The risk of environmental pollution arises from the low-hazard nature of the DC components. However, the water-soluble salts ions (chlorides, sulfates, sodium) can greatly affect the environment, while petroleum products and heavy metals have less effect. DC pollution leads to disturbance of the ecological balance in the soil biocenosis, vegetation depression and landscape transformation. The challenge of restoring lands affected by DC disposal is the most urgent for Western Siberia. Therefore, this review examines various approaches to such lands restoration. The methods involve the mineral additives as well as humic-mineral ameliorants applying, leveling layers and sowing perennial crop seeds, the production of man-made soil followed by the phytomeliorant plants sowing, sorbents and geotubes application, as well as biological methods implementation. The drawbacks of the above mentioned approaches include economic inefficiency and transport inaccessibility in the supply of certain materials and resources. However, the creation of artificial soils through biological methods in conjunction with mineral fertilizers and sandy soil facilitates the initiation of soil-forming processes, ultimately alleviating the anthropogenic burden on the environment and restoring disturbed lands and ecosystems with minimal financial cost. Thus, DC can be a mineral soil-forming rock for the development of “young” soils and the formation of stable phytocenoses, since it contains trace elements necessary for plants, and is based on an aluminosilicate material
on which most natural soils are formed.
ISSN 1995-4301
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