THE COST-EFFECTIVENESS OF CONTAMINATED LAND REMEDIATION STRATEGIES

British Gas has a major programme of contaminated land remediation, re claiming the sites of many former gasworks for other beneficial uses. On behalf of its customers and shareholders, the company must ensure t hat its approach to remediation is as cost-effective as possible, whil e meeting all environmental obligations. The development of two disuse d sites presented the opportunity to examine the cost benefit of remed iation, both in terms of the level of site investigation needed to min imise unforeseen costs in the subsequent remediation phase, and to com pare the relative costs of alternative remediation techniques. The cas e studies demonstrated a substantial cost benefit of an extensive site investigation prior to remediation works, while a comparative analysi s of remediation techniques concluded that landfill was the least expe nsive, compared with bioremediation and soils washing. However, with t he addition of the landfill tax, the costs of alternatives to landfill disposal become more comparable. As more experience is gained of the new techniques, costs should fall, helping to encourage a wider choice of cost-effective remediation approaches in the UK. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.