Introduction to Contaminated Site Management

Abstract

Over thousands of years, contaminants have been added to the world's upper soil layers and have led to contamination of the soil and the groundwater. However, it was not until the late 1970s that several notorious cases of contaminated sites led to a sudden awareness to the general public. Today, in most developed countries, the number of potentially contaminated sites has grown to six or seven digits. This chapter describes the basic principles of contaminated site management. It focuses on risks and Risk Assessment, that is, quantifying the risks from contaminated sites on the basis of chance (exposure) and effects. This process is widely accepted today as offering the best balance between a sound scientific basis and practical implementation for appraisal of contaminated sites. Moreover, this chapter describes Risk Management, this is the process that brings contaminated sites back into beneficial use. The four major protection targets are human health, the soil ecosystem, the groundwater and Food Safety. Specific attention will be given in this chapter to a wide variety of topics including public and political awareness, soils, local and diffuse contaminated sites, contaminants, background concentrations, emissions to soil, site characterisation, land use, Soil Quality Standards, Brownfields, cost-benefit analyses, Risk Perception and Risk Communication, sustainability, and the actors involved in contaminated site management. Finally, several approaches to contaminated site assessment and management will be described, including the Fitness-for-Use approach, and Risk-based Land Management. In doing so, specific attention will be given to practical aspects such as effective use of financial resources and integration of contaminated site management (e.g., with regard to spatial planning, socio-cultural issues, economics and other factors).