What do you know about contaminated soil?

How many people know about contaminated land or soil? Soil contamination goes far beyond a dirty patch of ummm... dirt...

In order to get a better understanding on contaminated land, we are going to go back in time a bit, a time when humanity was none the wiser. From the beginning of the industrial age, man has been polluting the air, water and soil with an array of chemicals and landfills. The bombing during World War 2 destroyed many cities and more importantly the factories and ammunition dumps. These factories poured chemicals and poison into the environment as they burst into flames. Even the lead from paint has been left in many soils where fires burnt buildings. But why should we worry about these contaminants in the soil?

Before 1995 there were no enforced laws to say that soil should be remediated or decontaminated before building a residential home. Then we need to look at the population push towards water side apartments and town houses. The banks of the Thames used to be teaming with industry of every sort as well as numerous landfills, until the property value suddenly increased. Has the soil under these developments been remediated or decontaminated or even contained? I must admit that there has been a fair amount of care taken with developing on historical landfill sites, however, some of their solutions are insufficient to say the least. Most landfill are covered with lots of topsoil and converted into golf courses and, less frequently, sports fields and parks. I did some research on a particular historical landfill site near Kew which has been converted into a number of sports fields, sports clubs, club houses and a health centre, and to top it off there were a number of different allotments dotted around the alleged site (How healthy is home grown?)

Things have however improved since, with government enforcing legislation to say that you cannot simply build on contaminated land. To which the construction industry promptly started dumping thousands of tons of contaminated soil into landfill sites. Unfortunately for those who dumped contaminated land, they are still responsible for all those contaminants recorded by the landfill and the Environment Agency. By 2006 the EU stepped in with plans for a more strict approach to removal of contaminated land. Today all soil that enters a landfill has to be treated to a certain level before it can be dumped. Additionally the UK government are constantly increasing landfill tax (Currently facing a £48 per ton charge for 2010).

This gets me onto the reason for this sudden attention to contaminated land. The first and biggest problem is that contaminated land could mean contaminated water. There are a wide variety of contaminants that you can find in our soils besides the obvious glass and plastic. Amongst the worst are Asbestos, Arsenic (found in most UK soils naturally) and Cyanide all of which can have pretty immediate results. We then get onto mutagenic and carcinogenic contaminates like Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH).

But how do these contaminates affect you since you live in a house with a pretty thick layer of concrete and tile, wood or carpet between them. Well you need to think deeper than that, and a little further back... back to when you were a kid playing in the dirt, playing football on pitches, or in the park... This is direct contact, that can result in terminal diseases. We then need to look directly under your house, and it is here that we see your water pipes... your essence of life. Over time hydrocarbon contamination has a corroding effect on metal, plastic and concrete, and as a result, you have these contaminants permeating your water pipes and gradually contaminating your water supply.

So this gets me back to my first point. Why do the public not know more about the health dangers and environmental affect of contaminated land. Yes, the government are making a point of developing 60% of all new developments of brownfield land (land that has been previously developed and potentially contaminated) in the UK, and 80% in London, but how does that protect those who have their home situated on contaminated land? How can you feel secure not know the history of your property, your parks, your sports fields, your schools, your workplace... the list goes on. Cancer has recently been linked directly to contaminated land (http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=17003&src=tw). How can we turn a blind eye to our children's future.

Shift Soil Remediation LLP (www.shiftsoil.co.uk) is dedicated to reducing the effect of contaminated land, by doing our part in decontaminating contaminated soils around the UK and the world. We hope to make your back garden and further a safer place.