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.

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.

The Scotland & Northern Ireland Forum for Environmental Research (SNIFFER) has commissioned a Code of Practice on the use of sludge, composts, and other organic materials for restoration and land improvement.* SNIFFER would like to notify you that the consultation period for this document will be open from 22 January to Friday 5 February 2010.

To coincide with Communities and Local Government’s recently published "Improving the Use and Discharge of Planning Conditions" (also out for consultation), The Planning Inspectorate has published for discussion a list of revised and consolidated model conditions. Once finalized the revised model conditions will be made available from the Planning Inspectorate's website and will eventually replace the conditions currently in Appendix A of the Circular 11/95. The list is not exhaustive and does not cover every situation where a condition may need to be imposed. The applicability of the conditions will need to be considered in each case against the policy tests in the final version of "Improving the Use and Discharge of Planning Conditions", which will, in turn, replace Circular 11/95 on the use of planning conditions.

Any comments or suggestions are to be sent by e-mail to Richard Holland by 19 March 2010.

Defra would like to invite your views on draft guidance on the legal Definition of Waste and it's application. The aim of the draft guidance is to help businesses and other organisations take the right decisions about the classification of substances as waste, particularly in the more difficult cases. Responses should be received by Monday 12 April 2010.

CL:AIRE is pleased to announce a new Technology Demonstration Project TDP31, titled: Demonstration of the Arvia® Process of adsorption coupled with electrochemical regeneration for the on-site destruction organic contaminants in groundwaters.

This project involves Arvia Technology Ltd and VertaseFLI.

Groundwater treatment to remove organic pollutants is often achieved using granular activated carbon (GAC) or other treatment processes followed by GAC. However GAC is both expensive and has significant environmental impact. Using the Arvia Process® significant cost and environmental benefits are anticipated. This project aims to quantify these potential benefits by evaluating the results achieved treating pumped groundwater containing a range of complex organics at a site under restoration for development by VertaseFLI. A second site with groundwater containing less complex organics (eg petrol station) will also be included within the project.

Defra has announced that the first bidding window for 2010/2011 funding under the Contaminated Land Capital Projects Programme is now open. The window runs for six weeks, closing on 29th January 2010.

Defra has acknowledged that the time of year may reduce the amount of time local authorities have to prepare their bids, but Philip Waine, who manages the Defra grants programme, said: “We are happy to open this window and very much hope local authorities have time to make an application. We understand it is tight, but if we extend the period it will delay the awards and impinge on the time available for delivery.”

Specialist in Land Condition (SiLC) have developed a draft Land Condition Skills Development Framework (LCSDF) and have opened this for consultation. This started on Friday 11th December 2009 and closes on Friday 19th February 2010. The document is aimed at all those individuals who are involved in preparing Brownfield land for development or ensuring it is suitable for its current use. The LCSDF has been prepared in response to a key recommendation from the Draft Brownfield Skills Strategy. To download the draft Framework document, to complete the online survey or for more information, click here.

CL:AIRE is pleased to announce a new training course on Waste and Brownfield Development starting in February 2010.

The aim of the course is to provide specific knowledge related to the latest waste management developments, in respect of soils on Brownfield and Greenfield sites. It will provide an overview of a range of initiatives associated with waste legislation and how it interacts with Brownfield developments. For a detailed agenda and registration form please click here.

As remediation is a complex procedure subject to numerous legislations this award rewards the companies who are developing innovative and ground breaking technologies to tackle environmental land issues. This award recognises high quality service that not only provides value for money but also has relevant environmental benefits.

Entry is free and must be submitted via the online form by 10th January 2010. For more information and to enter click here.

 CL:AIRE and the International Network for Sediment Research (INSR), which is sponsored by The Leverhulme Trust, are jointly organising a sediment remediation workshop on 6-7th July 2010 at Newcastle University. The event will review the state of the art in sediment pollution assessment and remediation in multiple countries.

Abstracts of no more than one page in length should be submitted as an email attachment to: INSR@newcastle.ac.uk by 26th March 2010. Accepted abstracts will be notified by 15th April 2010. Please indicate the preferred presentation format (20 min oral or poster).

CL:AIRE along with AGS and EIC have today published the report ‘The Soil Generic Assessment Criteria for Human Health Risk Assessment’ [1] that provides a detailed set of generic assessment criteria (GAC) for 35 contaminants sometimes encountered on land affected by contamination in the UK to help all contaminated land practitioners provide accurate human health risk assessment.