Acid Sulfate Soil Guidelines

Acid Sulfate Soil Guidelines These guidelines describe best practice standards for managing coastal acid sulfate soil material. The updated version released in 2023 contains information on risk assessments, avoiding and minimising soil disturbance, and management of unavoidable disturbances. Management techniques such as chemical neutralisation and strategic reburial are discussed in detail. The new version includes additional material on groundwater dewatering, water quality parameters, remediation, environmental management plans, ASS investigations and a poem on sulfidisation.

The national ASS manual describes laboratory methods which can be used to conclusively identify the presence or absence of acid sulfate soils, to quantitatively assess the associated hazards, and includes a section on interpretation of laboratory results. The 2004 Queensland Laboratory Methods Guidelines and Australian Standard AS4969 also include the option of analysing soil using the Suspension Peroxide Oxidation Combined Acidity and Sulfate (SPOCAS) method, which can provide additional information to aid with interpretation of results. If choosing SPOCAS analysis, the methods to calculate net acidity and liming rates must be consistent with the definitions contained within the National Guidance Material.

The latest Queensland Sampling guidelines are the National ASS sampling and identification methods manual. These have superseded the 1998 Queensland Sampling Guidelines.

All of the above guidelines should be used by consultants, earth moving contractors, developers, agricultural and aquaculture producers, sand and gravel extraction operators, community groups and administering authorities from state and local government.

The guidelines should be used by consultants, earth moving contractors, developers, agricultural and aquaculture producers, sand and gravel extraction operators, community groups and administering authorities from state and local government.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

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Author soils@qld.gov.au
Maintainer soils@qld.gov.au
Version 1
Last Updated December 1, 2023, 14:21 (AEST)
Created September 1, 2014, 17:37 (AEST)