Heavy metal content of agricultural topsoils has been experimentally determined at 14 areas in the German Leipzig–Halle–Bitterfeld region covering ca. 3700 km². For most of the locations and elements, the contamination levels are comparable to those of other agricultural sites in Germany and Europe. Application of a sequential extraction technique revealed relatively low contamination levels in the mobile fractions, which indicates a correspondingly low degree of bioavailability of the heavy metals under the current milieu conditions. In contrast, acidification of the soil due to a drastic decrease in the deposition of calciferous fly ash would lead to a significantly increased ecotoxicological hazard potential, as is analyzed by a probabilistic distribution method that quantifies the overlap of normalized exposure and effect data. The discussion includes recommendations for further improvement of risk assessment schemes addressing soil contamination.