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Contaminated Land Remediation and Site Investigation Nottingham

Following a highly successful trial in the North West last year Geoinvestigate have been given the go ahead for a second remediation project on a site near Slough using the cutting edge M.E.T.S.™ bioremediation technology system which recently arrived in the UK from the USA. Several enquiries about the new system have also been received from the Nottingham area and site investigations are underway to establish the potential for the new technology at these sites with borehole site investigations.

On the recommendation of Geoinvestigate’s Geo-environmental expert Jack Harper Copeland Council’s Environmental Health department accepted the first full UK field trial of the new M.E.T.S. bioremediation technique on the South Cumbria peninsula near Haverigg.

Contaminated Land Remediation and Site Investigation Haverigg, Cumbria
Contaminated Land Remediation and Site Investigation Haverigg, Cumbria

Under franchise to Shift Soil Remediation LLP from the US parent company the technology, known as M.E.T.S.™ ( or METS, Matrix Enhanced Treatment System), was successfully used to remediate a contaminated site where a leaking above ground storage tank had created an underground plume of hydrocarbon contamination in the sandy sub stratum.

The site, which is earmarked for residential redevelopment had formerly been used for general vehicle servicing and maintenance including engine oil and break fluid changes with limited site storage of diesel fuel in several tanks and drums.

A comprehensive Phase 1 desk and reconnaissance study and subsequent Phase 2 intrusive borehole site investigation by Geoinvestigate had identified a narrow plume of hydrocarbon contamination originating from the location a surface diesel tank which had been removed beforehand.

Geoinvestigate’s Jack Harper realised early on during the Phase 2 borehole investigation that the sandy made ground and natural soils at the site could be suitable for on-site treatment by bioremediation at considerably less cost than excavation and disposal to a landfill – cost being the major consideration for the Client and the deciding factor on whether they would go ahead with the redevelopment.

Contaminated Land Remediation and Site Investigation Haverigg, Cumbria
Contaminated Land Remediation and Site Investigation Haverigg, Cumbria

On researching various treatment options Jack eventually identified new US METS technology as possibly offering the most financially attractive solution to the remediation of the site. On comparing METS bioremediation costs with those of traditional dig and dump (including the soil’s excavation, disposal and fill replacement costs), METS was found to offer a seemingly appropriate highly cost-effective remediation solution and the first full trial in the UK was given the green light by the Client and the Local Authority.

Even today with so much environmental awareness by far the most common way to deal with contaminated land, especially on a small site such as this, is still “dig and dump” whereby contaminated soils are excavated and transported to landfill and site levels are restored using clean fill brought into site. Not only is this expensive, being subject to plant, transport, ever-rising landfill tax and imported clean fill costs, but it is also becoming increasingly unacceptable from the view point of environmental sustainability and the governments drive to minimise off site disposal where possible.

The crude and wasteful nature of dig and dump operations are fast helping to fill up landfill sites which are rapidly dwindling in number (hence the increasing tax in line with EC legislation) while adding to carbon emissions from the transport of large quantities of contaminated soil out of, and clean soil into, the affected site. It is widely accepted in the remediation industry today that much contaminated soil is being unnecessarily sent to landfill because of the lack of availability of simple, reliable and relatively cheap on site and in-situ treatment methods.

With landfill tax continually increasing it is becoming inevitable that the time will come when dig and dump will no longer be financially viable in all but a few instances and a whole raft of remediation methods will become available including the new METS system to avoid dumping, and rightfully so.

“The wonderful thing about this technology”, said Geoinvestigate’s Geo-environmental engineer Jack Harper, “is that it drastically reduces the monitoring, sampling and reagent costs of normal bioremediation techniques, while the onsite ex-situ, mechanically implemented nature of the treatment essentially removes the unpredictable and potentially unreliable nature of the normal monitored in-situ bioremediation of contaminated soils. It amounts to nothing less than recycling soil which is by no means an infinite resource”.

The site works were completed in just two days with the attendance of the intrigued local contaminated land officer and following a single subsequent sampling exercise the soils were deemed fit to be reinstated and suitable for the residential end use of the development much to the satisfaction of all the interested parties.
While the first field trial of METS was taking place last year in Cumbria Geoinvestigate were busy with another a Phase 1 desk study and Phase 2 borehole site investigation on a redevelopment project near to the M40 in Buckinghamshire close to Slough. This investigation found similar contamination in similarly granular soils and immediately the solution was clear and traditional dig and dump could be avoided using METS.

The site was found to contain several hydrocarbon plumes larger than the one successfully remediated in the North West resulting in better value for money implementation of the new bioremediation technology owing to the increased quantity of soils to be treated. It will also represent huge savings over the dig and dump alternative because the very high costs of excavation, transport and landfilling will be avoided not to mention the benefits arising from the reduction of carbon emissions from trucking materials out of and into site.