SULPHUR POLLUTION OF SOILS IN THE DOICESTI STEAM POWER PLANT AREA

The Doicesti steam power plant operates from 1952. It is located in the area of the Sub-Carpathian hills, on the Ialomita Valley, Romania, and it constitutes an important source of sulphur pollution. The studied territory can be geographically classified in the Sub-Carpathian Curvature and the Prahova Sub-Carpathian subunits. Pedogenesis factors that dictate the direction of evolutionary soil were rock, topography and parent material, all leading to the evolution of the soil area lithology. Four soil classes are met in the studied territory, each with types and subtypes mentioned in the paper: Luvisols, Cambisols, and Vertisols (WRB 2014), and Protisols (SRTS 2012). The subject of this work is sulphur loading degree assessment in the soil affected by emissions from the Doicesti steam power plant. Samples of 23 soil profiles were collected from all cardinal directions around the power plant and were analysed for their total, organic, and mobile sulphur contents. In the area of the Doicesti steam power plant the sulphur emissions affect soil, plants and population health.