Column experiments were used to study the leaching of 4 samples of industrial waste and 5 soil samples by distilled water and by synthetic acid rain solutions /HNO3 and H2SO4 at pH 3/. The pH, the electrical conductivity, the total dissolved solids and the concentration of Al, Ca, Cl, Cr, Fe, K, Mg, Mn and Na have been measured in the resulting lixiviates. The pH of the water seems to have little effect on all these parameters but they are significantly influenced by the nature of the solid material.