Remediated Sites and Brownfields. Success Stories in Europe

2019

Soil contamination has increased over the past few decades, mainly due to petroleum hydrocarbons, heavy metals, pesticides application, industrial wastes, and human activities. Suitable and standardized monitoring and remediation strategies are required to minimize soil contamination. In this sense, in the most recent decade, there has been a developing innovative technology on the usage of residues and waste materials, originating from various industries, many remediation innovations (Chemical degradation, photo-degradation) and bioremediation to clean polluted soils.

Martínez Cortizas A, Silva Sánchez N, Pérez Rodríguez M, Rodríguez Lado L, López-Costas O, Mighall T, López-Merino L, Kylander M, and Biester H. 2015. Peatland soils. In: A PP, Peláez Sánchez S, and Van Liedekerke M, editors. Remediated sites and brownfields: success stories in Europe: European Commission, Joint Research Centre JRC EUR 27530. p 176-181

Journal of Environmental and Public Health, 2013

Under the European Union (EU) Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection, the European Commission has identified soil contamination as a priority for the collection of policy-relevant soil data at European scale. In order to support EU soil management policies, soil-related indicators need to be developed which requires appropriate data collection and establishment of harmonized datasets for the EU Member States. In 2011-12, the European Soil Data Centre of the European Commission conducted a project to collect data on contaminated sites from national institutions in Europe using the European Environment Information and Observation Network for soil (EIONET-SOIL). This paper presents the results obtained from analysing the soil contaminated sites data submitted by participating countries. According to the received data, the number of estimated potential contaminated sites is more than 2.5 million and the identified contaminated sites around 342 thousand. Municipal and industrial wastes co...

Soil Erosion in Europe Why and How , 2019

This is a book in which expert snd invided authors report on the problems of soil conservation and hold meetings with stakeholders. This is an introduction to the problem and it looks at also the conditions in Alicante . Imeson explains the issues related to land use and erosion and the soil threats. The aim is to support the soil directive being debated. Information about the authors is provided. The current year is given because it is now published here by The Foundation 3D Environmental Change

2007

China is preparing for legislation on soil contamination and cleanup. Belgium has already acquired wide experience with the issue of soil remediation, and this maybe of interest for countries where this kind of legislation is still lacking. Although the institutional, legal and socio-economic context in China is quit different from that in Belgium, some of the solutions found in Belgium maybe a source of inspiration for those in charge of preparing a soil remediation legislation in China. The three regions -environmental policy in Belgium is indeed largely a matter of the three regions -in Belgium each have their own legislation in the area of soil remediation. The oldest legislation, where most experience has been acquired, is that of the Flemish Region. In this paper we will discuss the main aspects of this legislation.

Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, 2015

Within the European Union, guidance in the form of a uniform Soil Directive does not exist and member states are left to enact their own legislation governing historic soil contamination. Several historic or ''legacy'' sites exist in Cyprus-an EU member state with a long history of mining and a significant number of abandoned mining sites. The gold-silver enrichment plant of Mitsero village was abandoned 70 years ago, yet soil samples inside and outside the plant were extremely low in pH, exhibited high leachability of heavy metals and high cyanide levels. Water samples collected from an ephemeral stream located down-gradient of the site contained high levels of heavy metals. Two abandoned open-pit mines (Kokkinopezoula and Mathiatis) were investigated, where elevated metal content in soil samples from the surrounding streams and spoil heaps, and extremely low pH and high metal content in water samples from the mine crater were measured. Keywords Heavy metals Á Cyanide Á Arsenic Á Abandoned mines Á Legacy soil contamination Soil contamination creates a significant risk to both human health and natural ecosystems , and is a priority when reusing industrial land. 2015 has been declared the International Year of Soils by the 68th UN General Assembly (A/ RES/68/232). The recent European Union (EU) LIFE publication (European Union 2014) describes a significant research funding aimed at numerous soil related issues such as land contamination, sustainable agriculture, and soil monitoring. In the publication, The Director of Natural Capital Pia Bucella writes, ''The new LIFE Programme (2014-20120) will increase the focus of soil, targeting land consumption, soil protection and cost efficiency as priorities for projects.'' Soil contamination is a major issue at the EU level and recent assessments (Panagos et al. 2013) of the situation, information from participating countries through the European Environment Information and Observation Network for soil (EIONET-SOIL), show that the number of potentially contaminated sites is estimated at more than 2.5 million and the identified contaminated sites around 340,000. Some of these sites are abandoned mines. There is an increasing need within the EU for uniform policies that will effectively protect soil from anthropogenic contaminants (European Union 2014). Two schools of thought existed until recently: the first favored a Soil Directive that would be implemented in a similar fashion to the Water Directive that has been implemented by all member states; the second favored legislation protective of soil be included in existing EU Directives and national legislation. Both approaches have good arguments that concern issues such as costs, existing national legislation, implementation, ownership of land, overlap, etc. With the recent withdrawal of the proposed Soil Directive (EU/2014/C 153/03) it seems K. Kostarelos (&) Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering,

Environments, 2022

Pollution from numerous contaminants due to many anthropogenic activities affects soils quality. Industrialized countries have many contaminated sites; their remediation is a priority in environmental legislation. The aim of this overview is to consider the evolution of soil remediation from consolidated invasive technologies to environmentally friendly green strategies. The selection of technology is no longer exclusively based on eliminating the source of pollution but aims at remediation, which includes the recovery of soil quality. “Green remediation” appears to be the key to addressing the issue of remediation of contaminated sites as it focuses on environmental quality, including the preservation of the environment. Further developments in green remediation reflect the aim of promoting clean-up strategies that also address the effects of climate change. Sustainable and resilient remediation faces the environmental challenge of achieving targets while reducing the environmental...

2016

This policy brief summarises recently developed perspectives on soils that have emerged from the findings of the MEMOLA project. The critical environmental dependency of soils is well-established yet to date soils have been undervalued and poorly recognised as cultural materials. MEMOLA has demonstrated that soils are an extensive cultural resource and form part of Europe’s rich cultural heritage. This brief stresses the need for a comprehensive European policy for soil protection and management that recognises the complex nature of soil and seeks to promote an awareness of soils as having a dual inheritance that stems from both cultural and natural processes. The Italian Soil Science Society (SISS) and the European Society for Soil Conservation (ESSC) collaborated in writing this policy brief and is supported by the UK Soil Association.

2008

This report is summarizing the results of recent research activities on the fields of soil degradation, soil quality and soil information systems performed in the Joint Research Center, in collaboration with partner institutions. An overview is given about the main soil threats (erosion, compaction, salinisation, landslides, decline of soil organic matter, biodiversity decline and contamination) and a soil quality concept with relevance to the Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection. How to obtain EU publications Our priced publications are available from EU Bookshop (http://bookshop.europa.eu), where you can place an order with the sales agent of your choice. The Publications Office has a worldwide network of sales agents. You can obtain their contact details by sending a fax to (352) 29 29-42758. The mission of the JRC is to provide customer-driven scientific and technical support for the conception, development, implementation and monitoring of EU policies. As a service of the Euro...

Soil and Tillage Research, 1998

2014

With the rise of concrete buildings and roads, one part of the Earth that we rarely see is the soil. The plants that feed us grow in soil and keeping it healthy is essential for maintaining a beautiful planet. However, like all other forms of nature, soil also suffers from pollution. The pollution of soil is a common thing these days, and it happens due to the presence of man made elements. The main reason why the soil becomes contaminated is due to the presence of man made waste. The waste produced from nature itself such as dead plants, carcasses of animals and rotten fruits and vegetables only adds to the fertility of the soil. However, our waste products are full of chemicals that are not originally found in nature and lead to soil pollution. This paper focuses on the various types of soil pollutions that occur commonly. A detailed discussion is made in this paper about the various treatment methods used for the polluted soil. These treatments include thermal treatment, phytorem...

2011

Since the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) launched its “Green remediation" program and EU member states began to reassess their national regulations for environmental remediation in order to reach a Europe-wide consensus on policy and standards, the need for the sustainable removal of contaminants from brownfields has grown considerably. Concomitantly, the ability to calculate and assess the suitability as well as the environmental footprints and associated risks of a growing number of remediation techniques has become a priority. This thesis aims to evaluate two of the most widely-used free commercial tools for this purpose, SiteWise TMv.1 and ‎SRT, for their practicability, quality and range of results and suitability specific to Swedish conditions. A number of ex-situ and in-situ methods are described in this thesis, a combination of which are then used to model twenty-six remediation scenarios for two documented contaminated sites in the Gothenburg reg...