Abstract
Abstract The paper presents the results of a study of pollution by heavy metals of 1 and 2 hazard classes of the soil cover of the territory adjacent to the industrial zone of the Aktobe ferroalloy plant. The article evaluates changes in the concentration of heavy metals of various hazard classes in terms of the ecotoxicological indicator in comparison of two periods. In the selected soil samples, the pH value was determined, the gross concentrations of cadmium, copper, zinc, nickel, chromium were determined. An excess of concentrations in the soil has been established: an excess of zinc is on average 1.19 times higher than the MAC, nickel is 5.4 times higher than the MAC, cadmium is 4.2 times higher than the MAC, and chromium is 62.13 times higher than the MAC.