An investigation and assessment of pollution of soils was carried out at metal mining, smeltery, and farmland irrigated with sewage in Western Liaoning. The results indicated that concentrations of heavy metals in these sites were higher above the background values. The high concentrations of Cd, Pb and Zn, in particular, should arouse more attention since they were well over the Governmental Standards in China for soils of agricultural use. Some companion relations existed between various metals, such as Pb with Cd and Zn. It is concluded that by using the I_geo method for determination, the degree of contamination was higher in the mining area and by using the RSP method it was higher in the soil around the smeltery.
The heavy metals in the soil mainly come from untreated sewage used for irrigation, disposal of tailings and slurry from metal ore mining.