Asbestos contaminated land sites

Common asbestos containing materials that may be found in contaminated land sites... 

The common asbestos containing materials that may be found in contaminated land and brown field sites are therefore pieces of cement boarding, insulation boarding, fibrous insulation or occasionally free fibre depending upon the previous usage of the site, bitumen felt, vinyl floor tiles and gasket materials. These materials may have been mixed in with demolition rubble and soil, crushed as hardcore and utilised on site, or simply buried to raise the level of the land prior to redevelopment. 

The remediation or removal of soil contaminated with asbestos from land under development is a very costly process. It is therefore essential that the laboratory be provided with samples that are of a suitable size, have been taken in a correct manner, stored correctly and are representative of the site or area from where they originated. To achieve these criteria, soil samples submitted for analysis should be in the range of 1-2 kg and be taken representatively throughout an area of potential contamination. In the case of large stockpiles awaiting classification prior to disposal or re-use, a guidance value of one sample per 250 m3 or a minimum of four samples per stockpile is generally considered acceptable. 

Acquisition of land parcels with preexisting environmental contamination may result in the obligation of the acquiring company to remove or ameliorate the contamination. For example, a company may acquire an old mine site, with the intention of exploiting previously uneconomic material, and find that existing buildings on the site contain asbestos insulation. The new owner may be required to remove that asbestos, an expensive process. 

Typical sites that may contain significant quantities of asbestos debris or ground contamination generally include railway land, depots, sidings, shipbuilders yards, dockyards, heavy engineering or industrial sites and waste disposal/landfill sites. 

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