A new report by the Environment Agency explains how to check whether the remediation of land contamination has proved successful and met the intended goals.

This new report, Verification of Remediation of Land Contamination, offers guidance on designing a verification programme to increase confidence in the outcome of a remediation strategy. Four key stages are involved in the verification process.

With the impending General Election, CL:AIRE has gathered the views from leaders in the industry and produced a policy paper on A Decade of Change for UK's Land Use - Economic Growth through Sustainable Regeneration. This is to assist and inform decision makers on the issues relating to redevelopment of land, identifying five key areas requiring urgent action.

 CL:AIRE Policy Paper - A Decade of Change for UK's Land Use 01.03.10 1.20 Mb

In this month’s Feature Article CL:AIRE talks with Dr David Hackett of Solum Environmental Ltd and Dr Richard Boyle of the Homes & Communities Agency about upcoming soils standards, specifically: the proposed European Soil Framework Directive, now under the new stewardship of the Spanish presidency; and the creation of a new Subsoil Standard which is underway through the British Standards Institute.

Drafts of ISO/CD 11916-1 and ISO/CD 11916-2 have been published for Public Comment by 3rd March. The fully titled drafts are:
• ISO/CD 11916-1 Soil quality — Determination of selected explosive compounds – Part 1: Method using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with ultraviolet (UV) detection.
• ISO/CD 11916-2 Soil quality — Determination of selected explosive compounds – Part 2: Method using gas chromatography (GC) with electron capture detection (ECD) or mass spectrometric detection (MSD).

For a copy of either documents please contact Mike Smith, M A Smith Environmental Consultancy, SCI representative on BSI Committee EH4-Soil Quality Tel. 01442 872 968 Email michael.a.smith@btinternet.com. Please note that there is a prescribed format for comments. These should be sent to Charlotte.Armstrong@bsigroup.com.

The ISO 10381 ‘Soil quality: Sampling’ series of standards is being revised with the intention of rationalising and updating the current series of eight standards.

The first revision ‘Part 6: Guidance on the collection, handling and storage of soil under aerobic conditions for the assessment of microbiological processes, biomass and diversity in the laboratory’ is now available here>>

Part 6 of ISO 10381 provides guidance on the collection, handling and storage of soil for subsequent testing under aerobic conditions in the laboratory. The recommendations in this document are not applicable to the handling of soil where anaerobic conditions are to be maintained throughout. This part of ISO 10381 is mainly applicable to temperate soils.

CL:AIRE has recently published the following new resource in the online library: Research Bulletin 10 (RB10) - Bioremediation of heavy hydrocarbons –reducing uncertainty in meeting risk-based targets: laboratory to field scale (PROMISE Project).

This bulletin describes weathered hydrocarbon transformation and its implications for bioremediation, analysis and risk assessment (outputs from LINK Bioremediation Project - BIOREM35 and CL:AIRE Research Project RP18).

A 2 week International summer school which includes a programme of lectures, practical exercises, field visits and research workshops on Contaminated Land and Groundwater, is to be hosted at the Beijing Normal University in July. The programme which will be facilitated by experienced researchers from the College of Water Sciences at Beijing Normal University and the Groundwater Protection Group at the University of Sheffield, will be delivered in English. Places are limited to 30 participants and applications are welcome from all countries by 31 March. A bursary of up to £750 is available for researchers working, or registered for a PhD, at a UK higher educational institution. For more information, please go to the Events Calendar or click here.

The Environment Agency began consulting on how it will use the new civil sanctions regime on 15th February. The Environment Agency and Natural England are to be the first to test the regime, which is intended to bridge the gap between informal advice and guidance following minor infringements and prosecution for serious crimes. The consultation document says once the regime enters force, prosecution will be generally reserved for “overt criminality, gross negligence or reckless behaviour”. But lesser offences may result in prosecution if they are repeated.

Defra has announced the decision to review the Statutory Guidance which underpins the contaminated land regime under Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

This decision follows work over the last year to examine the implementation of the current regime, and input from a wide range of stakeholders. It is now ten years since the Statutory Guidance was first introduced and Defra believes that there is a strong case for considering where it could be amended to reflect experience in delivering the regime and developments in our scientific understanding.

In July 2009, Defra announced the Secretary of State’s decision to serve a remediation notice on a site in Sandridge, Hertfordshire, which was used as a chemical works producing bromate and bromide between 1955 - 1980. The contaminants had seeped into the underlying Chalk aquifer, leading to closure of a number of water abstraction boreholes, including drinking water boreholes used by Thames Water Utilities and Veolia Water Three Valleys.

Redland Minerals was selected as an appropriate person for remediation because it had acquired the organisation that once operated the plant, whilst Crest Nicholson was selected as an appropriate person for remediation because of the way it redeveloped the site for residential housing in the 1980s.

Both companies applied to the High Court for permission for judicial review, and on the 3rd and 4th February 2010 their appeal was overturned with the Court deciding that there was no arguable case for granting permission in either claim. These were the first appeals against a remediation notice to be heard by the Secretary of State under Part IIa of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

CL:AIRE is pleased to announce a new training course on Ground-Gas Monitoring, Risk Prediction and Management.

The aim of the course is to provide an understanding of ground-gas issues and enhance individuals competency on the subject with the latest industry developments.

Course dates are 24th February and 16th June 2010 and will be held in the CL:AIRE office in London. For a detailed agenda and registration form please click here

Following amendments made to Generic Assessment Criteria (GAC) report, an updated version is now available to download from the CL:AIRE website by clicking here.

CL:AIRE has been awarded a tender by Defra to conduct a six month research project on contaminated land remediation.

The aim of this research is to summarise the current understanding and utilisation of different contaminated land remediation techniques, to identify likely future factors influencing their selection and to set out the relative economic, environmental and social costs and benefits (i.e. the sustainability) of each technique.