Learning from the mistakes of others

As a society, we are becoming more and more mature and ecologically aware. We segregate rubbish, try to eat responsibly, buy responsibly, in line with the spirit of "zero waste" or "low carbon". But what do we know about what's underneath? Was there a green clearing where we live previously or was there a mercury-based factory? Environmentally neutral soil or a dormant ecological bomb? The disordered past will take revenge in the future, as long as we don't do anything about it. On the one hand, it will not be done by those who have experience and tools for land remediation, and on the other hand, the regulators will do everything they can to enable the former to act.

As noted by Craig A. Cox, president and chief scientist of Cox-Colvin & Associates, in Poland the legislative mechanisms and options for financing remediation in Poland are not yet well developed, however, it is optimistic that we have the opportunity to avoid the errors that previously entered countries faced on the remediation path.

There is definitely a lot to do in Poland and all over Europe.

However, a coherent policy of the EU Member States is needed. Dr. Piotr Wojda, appointed scientific officer of the Joint Research Center of the European Commission, stated that proper management of brownfield sites is becoming the most important topic for the coming years. Several aspects are superimposed here. One, undeniably important, is the environment. Others include the need resulting from the increasing deficit of urban areas that could be used for housing purposes. Many cities struggle with this problem. That is why it is so important to properly address the problem of contaminated brownfield land so that the new use of the site complies with the regulatory framework and, above all, safely serves future generations. The EU agenda in which Dr. Piotr Wojda works is, inter alia, the task of developing coherent mechanisms for the member states. As the expert noted, many initiatives complement each other, for example, the Green Deal announced two years ago is in line with the biodiversity strategy or the soil strategy announced this year - a long-term plan to protect the environment and remediate contaminated land.

For example, the European circular economy action plan (for extracting waste and raw materials) will have an important impact on the management of brownfield sites. All EU initiatives must influence and influence each other. "We have to focus on a common reporting standard, sharing data across the EU, and achieving transparency in research and data" - explained Dr. Piotr Wojda during the conference. Today, only 13 member states have identified contaminated sites. We have around 2.8 million contaminated sites in Europe. Many of these areas still need detailed research - about 170,000. However, about 125,000 require remediation. 14,400 plots of land are under remediation, already over 63,000. So a lot is happening, and even more, depends on the financing of remediation as part of the development of post-industrial areas. The mechanisms are different here, as pointed out by Piotr Wojda. In some countries, most remediation is privately funded, while others are funded by public funding programs.

Disarming Polish bombs

How does Poland look compared to Europe? Where are we today? During REMEDy, Dr. Wojciech Wołkowicz from the Polish Geological Institute / National Research Institute attempted to outline the Polish context and the formation of environmentally degraded areas. Until the 1970s, industrial activities in Poland that did not take into account the environment were accepted. It was not until the mid-1990s that the first methodological guidelines for the assessment of the degree of soil and groundwater contamination with petroleum products appeared, based on the experience of Western Europe. The most polluted areas began to be identified. In Poland, we have today about 440 areas where there is potential historical pollution of the earth's surface and as many as 760 areas where this pollution has been found. These are mainly identified post-industrial areas in cities. In Poland, we also have several ecological bombs classified by the Chief Inspectorate of Environmental Protection, e.g. the asbestos waste landfill in Ogrodzieniec or the sludge ponds in the area of Huta Stalowa Wola.

Dr. Wojciech Wołkowicz pointed out that under the current regulations there are no procedures enabling the efficient removal of toxins and historical waste from areas that are no longer owned by anyone or are not a contaminated surface of the earth that could be subjected to the remediation process. The assumptions of the bill on large-scale degraded areas are being developed, which tries to solve some of the problems with the collected waste.

The planned act will cover such large-scale areas as, for example, the former "Tarnowskie Góry" Chemical Plant in Tarnowskie Góry, the "Zachem" Chemical Plant in Bydgoszcz or the "Organika-Azot:" plant in Jaworzno. The list is to be open, with the possibility of adding objects. It is equally important to solve the issue of post-mining areas, which Dr. Katarzyna Barańska from Kochański & Partners law firm spoke about during her speech. By 2050, the EU is to be climate neutral, which means that the fossil-based economy will run out of time. For example, renewable energy sources can be an idea for the development of post-mining areas.

Every method has a value

It is the case study and the discussion of the technologies used that constitute the strength of the conference. Andre Chiaradia mentioned it during the panel discussion, emphasizing that one of the goals of the meeting is to show what is happening in the world in Poland and the possibilities of using technologies related to pollution recognition and remediation. And there are more and more of them and they are more and more effective. One of them is, for example, soil air (vapor) sampling. Much attention to this topic was devoted to such panelists as Laurie Chilcote, Cox-Colvin & Associates director and vice president, or Harry O'Neill, Beacon Environmental president. This method, as Laurie Chilcote noted, was much talked about in the 1980s, but then the expert attention shifted to soil and groundwater analysis, and soil vapors were forgotten. It seems that soil air analysis can give much more accurate, cheaper, and faster results of soil and water contamination identification. As Harry O'Neill pointed out, vapor samples identify contamination much faster than wells in soil. In addition, as the expert pointed out, reliance on soil samples can lead to many aspects being overlooked. According to him, gas solutions are better and more effective. "The problem with the traditional approach to soil sampling is that there is a challenge of how deep and where they should be taken to reflect the actual contamination in a given area," he noted. “The advantage of gas sampling is that you don't have to dig deep to the source of the contamination. The more steam samples, the better the data and the greater the savings for the investor, ”said Laurie Chilcote. Could this mean a retreat from the current sampling methods? As noted by Paweł Kot, Business Development Manager at i2 Analytical, who participated in the discussion, you should have a wide catalog of data collection on contamination, because each technique has its drawbacks, and by wisely using various available methods, we have a better chance of achieving accurate results. Craig A. Cox has a similar experience, explaining that in the US there is also no one remediation technique and there is never one remedy for each area. There must be several technologies because different methods work in different places and it is only there that it is possible to judge which one will be the right one for a given case.

Regardless of the chosen method, technology, tools, it is important not to miss the priority of making the earth, and more broadly - the planet, healthier and safe for this and the next generations. The European Green Deal, as recalled by Piotr Wojda, has the ambition to completely eliminate pollutant emissions by 2050. Healthy soil and clean groundwater will be the pillars of a better future