The redevelopment of industrial land can have tremendous cost implications in instances were residual contamination needs to be addressed. This was the case for a Melbourne site where a history of heavy industry manufacturing had given rise to a range of soil contaminants. Thanks to an effective soil testing and management programme, T+T significantly reduced the costs for off-site disposal and treatment of impacted soils.
When the client embarked on the development of an historic industrial site, they contracted T+T to assist with the environmental assessment and management.
After a preliminary site investigation to establish potential contamination sources, the environmental services team employed a rating system for excess soils requiring off-site disposal. Based on several contaminant indicators observed within stockpiled soils, this would dictate the laboratory analysis allocated to the various stockpiles. This approach tailored the analysis based on T+T’s knowledge of the site and significantly reduced the laboratory fees.
With additional in-situ sampling in certain areas, the client had the benefit of timely and detailed information about soil classification and volumes. This accelerated the project and allowed early cost estimates for excess soil excavation and removal from site.
The presence of specific contaminants in some soils would have resulted in high off-site disposal costs. For T+T this presented an opportunity to develop cost-effective onsite management options. In one case the team achieved this with the use of a binding agent that helped to stabilise lead contamination. This reduced the leachability, which also reduced the categorisation of the soils along with the subsequent cost of off-site disposal. The second example involved a cost benefit analysis of various disposal options for soils contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), with off-site thermal destruction of the contaminant adopted as the best environmental and most cost-effective solution.
These methods employed by T+T were deemed an all-round success as they met the relevant regulatory requirements and represented a substantial cost saving for the client.
