Contaminated land

Any project involving the rehabilitation of derelict land requires a feasibility study. This needs to consider topography and geological conditions, site history, and the local environment and existing infrastructure. The results of the feasibility study allow an initial assessment to be made of the possible ways to develop a site. This is followed by a site investigation. 

A survey of derelict land being undertaken In Leeds, England. 

The investigation provides essential input data for the design of remedial measures and indicates whether or not demolition debris can be used in the rehabilitation scheme. 

The Big Hole, Kimberley, South Africa. This famed old diamond working is now a popular tourist attraction. 

Land can contain substances that are undesirabie or even hazardous as a result of natural processes, for example, as a result of mineralization. However, most cases of contaminated land are associated with human activity. In particular, in many of the industrialized countries of the world, one of the legacies of the past two centuries is that land has been contaminated. Hence, when such sites are cleared for redevelopment, they can pose problems. Contaminated land is by no means easy to define but it can be regarded as land that contains substances that, when present in sufficient concentrations, are likely to cause harm, directly or indirectly, to man, to the environment or to other targets. 

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SI 1997/2778 Northern Eeland - The Waste and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997... 

HS(G)66 Protection of workers and the general public during development of contaminated land... 

Remediation of contaminated land, occupational hygiene aspects on the safe selection and use of... 

Created the Environment Agency (EAJ and the SEA for Scotland. Contains detailed provisions for dealing with a range of environmental issues including air quality contaminated land reinforcing the polluter pays principle water quality, with the EA empowered to require action to prevent water pollution and to require polluters to clean up after any pollution episode. 

Any waterbodies constructed on the contaminated land which are to support aquatic life will need to be completely sealed against the underlying ground and inlet and outlet water provisions designed so that they are sealed against any flow of contaminated water into the waterbody. 

As a general rule, young, immature plants should be chosen for any landscape-planting scheme on reclaimed, previously contaminated, land. This allows the plants to adapt gradually to such an environment. It is not normally appropriate to plant mature shrubs and trees to create an instant mature landscape in such an environment. 

A further application of the manipulation of microbial activity in the rhizo-sphere is their potential to remediate contaminated land. Bioremediation involves the u.se of microorganisms that break down contaminants. Radwan et al. (255) found that the soil associated with the roots of plants grown in soil heavily contaminated with oil in Kuwait was free of oil residues, presumably as a result of the ability of the resident rhizosphere microflora to degrade hydrocarbons. The use of plants as a means to accumulate pollutants such as heavy metals (256,257) to degrade hydrocarbons and pesticides (255) is already widely implemented and has proven to be successful. In some cases, there is no doubt that it is the plant itself that is responsible for the removal of the contaminants. However, in most... 

Many policies and practices have been adopted by European countries for the management of contaminated sites. Information about the various national polices, the technical approaches for risk assessment, and the progress of rehabilitation activities in Europe has been compiled in the framework of two European networks—CARACS (Concerted Action for Risk Assessment for Contaminated Sites) and CLARINET (Contaminated Land Rehabilitation Network for Environmental Technologies)—which were funded by the European Commission. A detailed description of European national policies can be found in relevant publications2 3 and in the CLARINET website (http //www.clarinet.at). 

Source From NATO/CCMS, Evaluation of Demonstrated and Emerging Technologies for the Treatment and Clean Up of Contaminated Land and Groundwater, NATO CCMS Pilot Study, Phase III, 1999 Annual Report, EPA 542/R-99/007, no. 235,1999 Ferguson, C. and Kasamas, H., Eds., Risk Assessment for Contaminated Sites in Europe, Vol. 2. Policy Frameworks, LGM Press, Nottingham, UK, 1999. With permission. 

Vic, E.A. and Bardos, P., Remediation of Contaminated Land. Technology Implementation in Europe, Federal Environmental Agency, Austria. CLARINET Report, available at www.clarinet.at, 2002. With permission. 

Loibner A, Jensen J, Ter Laak T, Celis R, Hartnik T (2006) In Jensen J, Mesman M (eds) Ecological risk assessment of contaminated land decision support for site specific investigations. RIVM report 711701047. Bilthoven, The Netherlands, p 19... 

CONTEST (Contaminated Land LGC sludges, sediments and soil Contaminated soils... 

Contaminated Land Proficiency Testing Scheme Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Certified Reference Material cumulative sum... 

Contaminated land policies need to result in sustainable solutions, which will restore the usability and economic value of the land. These solutions can be characterised by the following three elements. 

Davidson CM, Duncan AL, Littlejohn D, Garden LM. A critical evaluation of the three-stage BCR sequential extraction procedure to assess the potential mobility and toxicity of heavy metals in industrially-contaminated land. Anal. Chim. Acta 1998 363 45-55. 

Contaminated Land Syndrome Local contamination of environmental assets at industrial locations Loss of biodiversity, deposition of pollutants in soils, water and air, loss of soil functions, health hazards... 

There are a wide range of bioremediation technologies either in use or proposed for use on oil/gasoline-contaminated land [301, 319], and these can be divided into two broad groups. In situ techniques treat the contamination at the site of the pollution event, whereas ex situ techniques remove the contamination from the ground and transfer it to another location for treatment. The use of in situ treatment is often preferable in terms of financial considerations, due to the cost of moving large quantities of soil [20]. Some novel approaches to the problem of hydrocarbon contamination of contaminated aqueous-solid phase environments is the use of (1) gas-liquid foams to enhance in situ bioremediation, and (2) biostimulation, as follows. 

Chaney R. L., Angle J. S., Wang A. S., McIntosh M.S., Broadhurst L., and Reeves R. D., 2005, Phytoextraction of soil Cd, Ni and Zn using hyperaccumulator plants to alleviate risks of metal contaminated soils requiring remediation. International Workshop Current developments in remediation of contaminated lands p. 39, 27-29 October 2005. Pulawy, Poland. 

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