Contaminated Land Management Framework in Malaysia

ByHazardous Substances DivisionDepartment of Environment

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BACKGROUND

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Many industrial sites can be potential contaminated sites as a result of industrial development over the past 25 years.

Contaminated land can be found at many places such as motor workshops, petrol stations, fuel depots, railway yards, landfills, industrial sites and ex-mining land

No specific legislation addressing soil and groundwater contamination in Malaysia

No soil or groundwater quality standards Little work carried out in identifying contaminated sites

Soil Quality is not monitored

Contaminated land is slowly gaining importance

(2) a person shall be deemed to pollute any soil or surface of any land if –

IS SOIL POLLUTION CONTROL BY ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ACT

1974?

(1) No person shall, unless licensed, pollute or cause or permit to be polluted any soil or surface of any land in contravention of the acceptable conditions specified under section 21.

Section 24 of the Environmental Quality Act 1974 states that;

(a) he places in or on any soil any matter whether liquid, solid, or gaseous; or

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IS SOIL POLLUTION CONTROL BY ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ACT

1974?(b) he establishes on any land a refuse dump, garbage pit, soil

and rock disposal site, sludge deposit site, waste injection well or otherwise used land for the disposal of or a repository for solid or liquid wastes

PENALTY

(3) fine not exceeding one hundred thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a period of not exceeding five years or both and to a further fine not exceeding one thousand ringgit a day for every day that the offence is continued after a notice by the Director General requiring him to cease the act specified therein has been served upon him.

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Industrial Area

Toxic & Hazardous Waste Storage

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Ninth Malaysia Plan

study on criteria and standard for managing and restoring contaminated land in Malaysia by DOE

Purpose of the study

to provide a framework for the proper assessment and management of contaminated sites that would ensure a consistent standard of site assessment and subsequent management is implemented at all contaminated sites

to provide some guidance to those responsible for management and assurance to the community that public health and environmental concerns on contaminated sites are being addressed.

Contaminated LandContaminated Land means a site at which a substance occur in, on or under the land at concentration:

Above the concentration at which the substance is normally present in or on the land in the same locality and pose or are likely to pose an immediate or long term hazard to human health or the environment; or

Exceed concentration specified in the Site Screening Levels (SSLs).

WHAT IS CONTAMINATED LAND?

Industrial Area

Toxic & Hazardous Waste Storage

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SCOPE OF APPLICATION

Framework applies to:-

1. Any land that are currently being used or were previously used, to perform potential polluting activities

Polluting activities define as any activities involving manufacture, store, use, handle and dispose of chemicals and hazardous waste.

Industries with the potential of contaminating soil and groundwater.

2. Any land that will involve in a change of land use from polluting activities to non polluting activities

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Overview of Contaminated Land Management Framework in Malaysia

GENERAL GUIDING PRINCIPLES

1.1. Polluter Pay PrinciplePolluter Pay Principle Define the responsibility for performing a site

assessment and remediation. Polluter can be the land owner or land occupier or any

polluter of any land.

2.2. Risk-Based Approach Risk-Based Approach Highlights potential current and future risk associated

with the presence of contaminants in the soil and groundwater matrix.

recommended corrective actions to mitigate or control incremental risk to the level acceptable from the human health and ecological perspectives.

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LAND CATEGORIES

1.1. Land with identified responsible partyLand with identified responsible party Contaminated land will require site assessment and

remediation in accordance with the three guidelines proposed by Department of Environment (DOE).

2.2. Land with no identified responsible party/Excluded Land with no identified responsible party/Excluded LandLand Contamination that is not possible for clean up under the

current conditions due to technology and resource availability is economically not feasible to be assessed and remediated under the contaminated land management (CLM) framework due to the scale of economic impact on the country;

Applies for only agricultural land, municipal domestic waste landfill, former mining land and orphan land; and

Requires a proposed risk management plan.

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POLLUTER’S RESPONSIBILITY

Determine if there is any presence of subsurface contamination in their land.

Notify DOE on any subsurface contamination

Determine if there is any unacceptable human health and ecological risk.

Propose a remediation action plan (RAP), implement, construct, operate and maintain appropriate remediation actions in order to address the risk arises from the presence of the identified subsurface contamination.

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Responsibility on Category 2 Contaminated Land

For land properties categorized under Category 2, the government authorities who have the direct jurisdiction on the land will be the custodian who should perform all actions required under the contaminated land management framework.

The responsible authorities should ensure sufficient resources are planned and allocated in the undertaking of those actions until the land is cleaned up and safe for its designated future land uses.

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SITE SCREENING LEVELS (SSLs)

Prescribed in the ‘Contaminated Land Management and Control Guidelines No. 1: Malaysian Recommended Site Screening Levels for Contaminated Land’

US EPA Regional Screening Levels has been referred in developing the Site Screening Levels (SSLs)

Exceeding SSLs indicates potential subsurface contamination

SSLs are not the national cleanup standards, it is use in the process of identifying and defining areas, contaminants, and conditions at a particular site.

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SITE SCREENING LEVELS (SSLs)

Sites with contaminants concentrations exceeding the SSLs will be considered as “contaminated land”

- further assessment will be required to determine any

health risk or ecological effects

Risk assessment shall be conducted to define an appropriate site-specific clean up target levels. As SSL are derived based on conservative assumptions that overestimate the human and ecological risk in most cases, cleaning up to achieve SSL is considered acceptable if the responsible party choose to achieve the proposed SSL without developing the site specific target level.

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• In the event if site clean up is required, the responsible person(s) shall justify the Site-Specific Target Levels (SSTL) that are protective of human health and ecological well being.

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Site Specific Target Levels

SITE SCREENING LEVELS (SSLs)

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SITE INVESTIGATION & ASSESSMENT

Prescribed in the ‘Contaminated Land Management and Control Guidelines No. 2: Assessing and Reporting Contaminated Sites’

Site assessment activities, i.e.:- Initial Assessment (or Phase I ESA) Detailed Assessment (or Phase II ESA) Risk Assessment

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SITE ASSESSMENT ACTIVITIES

Initial Assessment (Phase I ESA) Historical Site Survey/desk top study ‘Walkover’ Assessment (site visits) to identify hazards,

receptors etc Formulation of initial Conceptual Site Model (CSM)

(preferably diagrammatic for clarity)

Detailed Assessment (Phase II ESA) Carried out after Phase 1 ESA when findings has shown

that land is potentially impacted by onsite or offsite activities

Intrusive sampling (boreholes, trenches, sampling) Chemical analysis of contaminants Further refinement of CSM

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CONCEPTUAL SITE MODEL (CSM)

Example:

1. UST leakage

2. Tanker accident

3. Container spillage

Example:

1. Leaching to soil & groundwater

2. Dispersed by wind

3. Flow into surface water

Example:

1. Human

2. Ecology

3. Flora & fauna

Source

Transport

Receptor

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Risk Assessment

Land properties which are detected with subsurface contamination at concentrations higher than the Site Screening Levels (SSL)

Process of estimating potential impact of contaminant on ecosystem or human population under a specific set of conditions

Allows most significant risks to be identified and addressed and the more significant pathways to be identified, facilitating effective targeting of risk mitigation strategies

SITE ASSESSMENT ACTIVITIES

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BASELINE ENVIRONMENTAL SITE ASSESSMENT (BESA)

For land properties which are not identified with any potential subsurface contamination during the initial assessment, it is recommended to conduct minimum baseline environmental site assessment to establish the background level of subsurface soil and groundwater quality for future reference, this is especially applicable for land properties that will be used for activities of polluting industries.

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REMEDIATION

Remediation processes would apply for the following scenarios:-

Site(s) with soil and groundwater concentration detected above the SSLs

Site(s) that are concluded to pose unacceptable risk to human health based on the findings of human health risk assessment performed in accordance with the ‘Contaminated Land Management and Control Guidelines No. 2: Assessing and Reporting Contaminated Sites’

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CONTAMINATED LAND CLOSURE REPORT

Submit the Closure Report to DOE, consists of:-

Objective - to summarize project information into a single, succinct, summary report

Documents what was planned, what was actually completed and what remains outstanding

Identifies any post-remediation requirements for the site:

o Long-term monitoring

o Risk management features

o Permanent site features that need to be protected and maintained

Restrictions to site use

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CONTAMINATED LAND MANAGEMENT (CLM)

FRAMEWORK

No

Contaminated Land Management and Control

Guidelines No. 1: Malaysian Recommended Site Screening Levels for Contaminated Land

Contaminated Land Management and Control

Guidelines No. 2: Assessing and Reporting

Contaminated Sites

Contaminated Land Management and Control

Guidelines No. 3: Remediation of

Contaminated Sites

YesExceed SSLs?

Project Closure

No

YesNo

Implement or incorporate risk

control measures

Assessment and reporting

contaminated land

Qualitative Risk Assessment

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Is it an excluded land?

Yes

Yes Ready for typical CLM

cycle?

No

No

Yes

YesImplement risk control

measures

Yes

No

Continue with risk control measures

Remediation & reporting of contaminated sites

Need further assessment?

Meet clean up goals SSTLs?

Further remediation?

Risk control measures needed?

Ready for proper closure?

Ready for Closure?

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QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS

All consultants or individual involved in the assessment and remediation of the contaminated land management shall fulfill the qualification requirements and registered with the DOE.

All consulting firms performing any activities under the contaminated land management framework shall be registered with the DOE.

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ISSUES FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION

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Low level of awareness amongst the public including the professionals

CLM Framework to be agreed by other relevant agencies e.g. Land authorities, local government, Minerals and Geoscience Department

Capability and Resources needed for implementation of CLM Framework

THANK YOUTERIMA KASIH

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