Evaluation of contaminant retention in the soil of sustainable drainage systems: methodological reflections on the determination of sorption isotherms

Runoff infiltration in Sustainable Drainage Systems enables the interception of a part of urban contaminant fluxes owing to several processes. The soil’s ability to retain dissolved pollutants is generally assessed via sorption isotherms obtained from batch studies; however, the experimental points are not always in the same range as runoff concentrations. The present work (i) explores the consequences of modelling runoff–soil interactions from out-of-range equilibrium concentrations, and (ii) proposes an improved method to ensure that experimental points fall within the desired range. Uncertainty analysis demonstrates that for a non-linear isotherm, using an extrapolated relationship may introduce significant biases in the ensuing estimations. Therefore, the proposed method consists of anticipating the equilibrium state of batch tests to accurately set the experimental conditions and reach appropriate concentrations. It is successfully applied to the determination of the sorption properties of copper and zinc onto three soils with different electrolyte solutions, as well as those of bisphenol A and three alkylphenols onto one soil. The contrasting affinities between the studied species and the soil materials could be related to their intrinsic properties and the soils’ pedological parameters, as well as the presence of salt or dissolved organic ligands which partially inhibited metal sorption.