We get this question from 3 types of clients, the ones who don’t know if we can help them, the ones who think we can remove any contaminant from any material, and the people in the middle who have used remediation contractors in the past and have a good idea of what we can do.
This post attempts to level the playing field a little, hopefully helping more people consider cleaning their soils instead of disposal, and helping some not to get too excited / disappointed when a solution doesn’t fit their scope.
Any contamination scenario can be remediated!
And for the most part an on-site treatment solutions exist, whether it fits your budget or timeframe is a different matter.
In my experience the relationship between soil treatment and the outcome of the soil for re-use is as follows-
There are 2 main types on contaminant, inorganics (e.g. lead, arsenic), and organics (e.g. petrol / diesel), remediation of these is in general very different. It’s difficult to remove metals from soils, conversely it can be quite simple to remove some of the common organic contaminants (e.g. TPH). The flip side of the coin is that metals can be relatively easily bound up in soils by stabilising them, while organic contaminants can be difficult to contain.
Implications for re-use
If the contaminant can be removed from the soil e.g. organics, then in theory the soil can be re-used in whatever capacity you need it for not accounting for geotechnical properties, e.g. sub-soils beneath gardens.
If the contaminant can’t be easily removed e.g. metals, and has been tied up with binding agent to form a material with a consistency between soil and concrete, then it’s unlikely you can re-use as a sub-soil for example, but might become very useful as fill beneath structures.
Feel free to contact us for advice as it’s always easier discussing projects on an individual basis as no site / scenario is the same. You can also find some of the treatment options we offer here.
2021
Soil remediation guide
Approaching soil remediation without any prior knowledge can be difficult and uncomfortable at times, especially when it can potentially be very costly. This free eBook will help you understand the whats, the whys and the hows of soil remediation in the simplest terms.