CONTAMINATED LAND REMEDIATION - ECONOMICS V LIABILITY

Chemical investigations of contaminated land can be expensive and yet still leave the landowner unaware of his/her full environmental liabil ity. An approach to an effective means of planning chemical investigat ions is described by a case study of a contaminated site near London. This approach limits environmental liability in a cost-effective manne r. One of the main problems encountered in assessing the degree of con tamination of land for the purposes of technical design, and ultimatel y for developer confidence, is the lack of recognized UK standards for acceptable levels of contaminants. Using a second case study relating to a large contaminated site in the Midlands, the paper describes how a set of site-specific standards, for soil and water, was derived and used to develop a reclamation strategy for an 81-ha site. The case st udy also demonstrates the approach which was adopted in handling a lar ge amount of analytical data and other quantitive information needed t o produce a set of 'constraint models'. From these constraint models, the strategy for reclaiming the site has been developed.