Soil load (heavy metals) — Soil planning area City Salzgitter 1: 50 000 (WMS Service)

In this subject, surfaces with different soil loads (heavy metal loads) are presented. The pollutant inputs into the soil are due to the fact that ores have been mined and processed in the resin for centuries. Inorganic pollutants such as lead, cadmium, zinc and arsenic entered the rivers that originated in the resin, and through the water path also into the soils of the historic river floodplains. Above all, spatially affected are: • the Harz itself (districts Goslar and Göttingen) • the Innerste-Aue (districts of Hildesheim and Wolfenbüttel, cities of Hildesheim and Salzgitter) • the Oker-Aue (districts of Wolfenbüttel and Gifhorn, city of Braunschweig) • and the depletion (districts of Celle, Gifhorn and Soltau-Fallingbostel, city of Celle). The use of the affected areas requires special attention so that the pollutants do not lead to risks to human health or cause damage to other soils. This applies in particular to the following types of use: • Stay in the living environment (house gardens), • Leisure activities, especially on children’s play areas, • Agriculture and horticulture, • Construction and water maintenance that generates soil material and dredging material. In the polluted areas, many people and institutions are affected by the problem: Home and landowners, farmers, planning municipalities, construction companies, waste authorities, water entertainers, etc. The map provides a spatial overview of the findings for which the responsible soil protection authorities have already drawn up binding regulations on soil pollution and adopted in soil planning area regulations. On the websites of the authorities (Cities Hildesheim, Salzgitter, Braunschweig and Landkreise Hildesheim and Goslar) you can find further details about the applicable regulations. For other areas, ‘expectation areas for soil pollution’ are presented, on which, according to the current state of knowledge, increased levels of pollutants in the soil can be expected against the background of geoscientific findings. These territorial representations are necessarily magnifying estimates. A detailed examination of individual points or areas may lead to significant differences in pollutant content in the areas concerned. Some areas may also have insignificant loads.