1

NEWS

NICOLE News - november 2015

NEWS

NICOLE News - november 2015

From the editorIn 2016 NICOLE will celebrate its 20th anniversary in Europe! We pass this milestone at a moment that NICOLE’s presen-ce in Europe is increasing fast. To date, we count more than 100 European industrial enterprises, service providers and academic institutions as our members.

But NICOLE is expanding outside the European continent as well. In 2015 NICOLE Brazil and NICOLE South Africa were established, and for 2016 we expect to announce NICOLE’s arrival in China as well!

Activity wise we also look back upon a successful 2015. Highlight was our Spring workshop in Manchester, UK, from 24 to 26 June. At this largest workshop in years, experts from all over Europe discussed the subject of ‘Emerging Contaminants’. We were proud to also welcome participants from countries as far afi eld as the US, Canada and Australia.

Nan Su NICOLE Secretariat

Read more from page 3 and subsequent

DEAR NICOLE MEMBERS,

2

COLOPHON

NICOLEnews is distributed among members and is available for download from www.nicole.org. If you would like to suggest an article for

the next edition of NICOLEnews please contact the NICOLE Secretariat by e-mail. NICOLEnews is published by NICOLE.

The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of NICOLE, its members, or DSBP. NICOLEnews is

for general information purposes only. It does not purport to be comprehensive or to provide legal advice. If you have any questions

or would like any more information about any of the items in NICOLEnews, please do not hesitate to contact either the authors or the

NICOLE Secretariat.

Copying of articles in NICOLEnews is permitted, free of charge, provided that editors’ permission is obtained and appropriate acknowl-

edgement of author and origin is given. Any submission accepted is on condition that copyright is assigned to NICOLE. Neither NICOLE,

its membership, nor any person acting on their behalf is responsible for the use which might be made of the

information given in this newsletter. The terms and conditions of the NICOLE website may also apply.

Editor and producer NICOLEnews: Nan Su – Dutch Sino Business Promotions (DSBP).

Copyright (c) NICOLE/DSBP – 2015. All rights reserved.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

NICOLE fall workshop Environmental Liability Directive ............................................................................................................1 1.a.NICOLE HORIZON 2020 ............................................................................................................................................4 b.Remediate ..................................................................................................................................................................4 c.Inpiration .....................................................................................................................................................................5 d.Deconet .......................................................................................................................................................................5 e.Role of NICOLE ...........................................................................................................................................................52.NICOLE and INSPIRATION ............................................................................................................................................63.2015 update from NICOLE working group report ....................................................................................................7 a.The Emergent Contaminants Working Group (ECWG) ..........................................................................................7 b.Regulatory Working Group (RWG) ...........................................................................................................................8 c.Sustainable Remediation Working Group (SRWG) ...............................................................................................10 d.Industry Subgroup (ISG) ..........................................................................................................................................10 e.Service provider subgroup (SPG) ..........................................................................................................................114.International year of soils 2015 and NICOLE ..........................................................................................................125.Representative of NICOLE new members ...............................................................................................................146. a.Best practice of NICOLE members .......................................................................................................................15 b.Engineered Phytoremediation as sustainable method for hydraulic containment at industrial site (Tauw) .....15

3

NEWS

NICOLE News - november 2015

Page 1 continues

We hope to equal, and maybe even top this result with our Fall workshop which is entitled: “Environmental Liability Directive: Implementation, experience and national case studies”

ENVIRONMENTAL LIABILITY DIRECTIVEThe Environmental Liability Directive has been in place since 2007, although enactment in Member States has been variable, with some States not formally implementing the regime until 2009, and Italy being required to create new and compliant country legislation as recently as 2013. An interesting case recently passed through the Welsh Courts , whereby water pollution occurred in a lake in Wales. Natural Resources Wales and Welsh Ministers agreed that temporal provi-sions of ELD should have direct effect from the effective date for liability under ELD, which is 30 April 2007, despite the Welsh legislation only coming into effect in May 2009. Whilst this has no effect on similar decisions in other Mem-ber States, it is an interesting precedent.

The EC was due to publish its Second Report on the ELD in April 2014, but has been delayed by a number of factors. The report is expected to consider the findings of the BIOIS Report of 2014 which undertook a wide-ranging consultati-on (including discussions with NICOLE), and set out propo-sals for possible changes to the regime. The report will also include as an annex the outcome of the REFIT evaluation as applied to ELD. This considers:• Relevance: To what extent do the (original) objectives

(still) correspond to the needs within the EU?• Effectiveness: To what extent did the intervention cause

the observed changes/effects? To what extent can these changes/effects be credited to the intervention? To what extent do the observed effects correspond to the objectives?

• Efficiency: Were the costs involved justified, given the changes/effects which have been achieved? What factors influenced the achievements observed?

• EU-added value: What is the additional value resulting from the EU intervention(s), compared to what could be achieved by Member States at national and/or regional levels?

• Coherence: To what extent is this intervention coherent with other interventions which have similar objectives? To what extent is the intervention coherent internally?

Major areas for possible change in the ELD include:• Making financial provision mandatory;• Making joint and several liability apply across all MS;• Removing defences of best practice and compliance with

a permit.

The current programme for the Report is completion by the end of 2015, and publication in early 2016, although this remains provisional. In the meantime, ELD and its application has been very variable, and the last information published by the EU on individual MS activity is only up to the end of 2012.

Professor Valerie Fogleman, Cardiff University and Stephens & Bolton, Update on the Environmental Liability Directive, Environmental Claims Conference, London, September 2015

4

2014 saw the fi nal withdrawal of the Draft Soil Framework Directive. However, the Seventh Environment Action Programme (2014), recognizes that soil degradation is a serious challenge and provides that by 2020 land is managed sustainably across EU. To this end, proposals have been laid to change the strategy to deliver sustainable use and management of land- soil-water-sediment system (soil ecosystem services), specifi cally considering:• Prevention;• Sustainable use of the system;• Management;• Restoration when needed.

The European Commission is establishing an EU expert group on soils, comprising Member State governments, which will meet for the fi rst time on 19th October. The group is intended to inform the Commission’s thinking on how to progress EU action on soils. In parallel, the Commission is recruiting consultants to review existing national soil protection measures and undertake a gap analysis. An initial consultation of Member States and stakeholders will take place in March 2016.

By Phil Crowcroft, ERM, chair of the Fall workshop NICOLE

NICOLE Brazil present at the general assembly at the workshop June 2015

1a NICOLE AND HORIZON 2020

Horizon 2020 is the fi nancial instrument implementing the Inno-

vation Union, a Europe 2020 fl agship initiative aimed at securing

Europe’s global competitiveness. It is the biggest EU Research and

Innovation programme (or Framework Programme) ever with near-

ly €80 billion of funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020).

The programme consists of three main research areas that are

called “pillars”.

• The fi rst pillar, “Excellent Science”, focuses on basic scien-ce with a budget of 24 billion euro.

• The second pillar is “Industrial Leadership”, with a budget of 14 billion euro. It is managed by DG Enterprise and based on Europe 2020 and Innovation Union strategies.

• The third pillar funds potential solutions to social and economic problems, “Societal challenges” (SC), in six sub-programmes, including energy, transport and cli-mate action, environment, resource effi ciency, and raw materials

The structure follows the previous framework programme (FP7,

2007-2013) to the level of the sub-programmes under the pillars. In

the industrial pillar the goal is to fi nd ways to modernize European

industries that have suff ered from a fragmented European market.

In societal challenges the goal is implementation of solutions, less

on technology development.

NICOLE has supported the application of three projects, of which

two were eventually granted.

1b REMEDIATE

The fi rst application that NICOLE actively supported was the REME-

DIATE application, a Marie Curie ETN project under the fi rst pillar

of Excellent Science. This project will bring together the diverse

technologies and disciplines that are applicable across a wide range

of site remediation approaches. It will address generic concerns

ranging from background contamination, contamination zones of

infl uence and bioavailability, treatment completion and eff ective-

ness of treatment, innovative assessment monitoring tools (e.g.

metagenomic assessment, biomolecular markers, sensors, remote

sensing, chemical sensors), effi cient site investigation techniques

(e.g. on-site testing; rapid & cost-eff ective techniques), life cycle

assessment and the fate transport in the subsurface environment.

Coordinator is Queens Univ. Belfast (Dr Julie-Anne Hanna). The

consortium further consists of Cranfi eld Univ. UK, Dublin City Univ/

Professor Valerie Fogleman, Cardiff University and Stephens & Bolton, Update on the Environmental Liability Directive, Environmental Claims Conference, London, September 2015

5

NEWS

NICOLE News - november 2015

Ireland, Univ. of Duisburg UK, IWW Wasserforschung Germany,

TUDO Dortmund Germany, SUPREN Germany, Univ. of Copenhagen

Denmark, Univ. of Turin Italy, Shell Global Solutions and ICPA

Romenia The proposal was awarded funding in 2014 scoring 93.6%.

1c INSPIRATION

NICOLE industry is also a stakeholder in the EU-INSPIRATION propo-

sal under the third pillar sub-programme climate action, environ-

ment, resource efficiency, and raw materials.

The aim of INSPIRATION is to adopt a funder and end-user de-

mand-driven approach to establish and promote the adoption of

the knowledge creation, transfer and implementation agenda for

land use, land-use changes and soil management in the light of

current and future societal challenges. INSPIRATION’s mission is to

improve the supply and effectiveness of science/ knowledge take-up

by those who really need it. Its main objectives are:

• Formulate, consult on and revise an end-user orien-ted strategic research agenda (SRA) for the Soil-Sedi-ment-Water system,

• Scope out models of implementing the SRA, deciding what is needed for improved future land management,

• Prepare a network of public and private funding instituti-ons willing to commonly fund the execution of the SRA.

Coordinator for this project is UBA Germany. The consortium

further consists of BRGM France, IETU Poland, IGN Czech Repu-

blik, OVAM Flanders, UALG Portugal, SITI Italy, UIRS Slovenia, WSL

Switzerland, Stadt+ Germany, ICPA Romenia, UoN Nottingham UK,

TECNALIA Spain, UFZ Germany, Deltares Netherlands, ETH Swit-

zerland, STUBA Slovakia, DIU Germany, TCB Netherlands, BOKU

Germany and SYKE Finland.

In the latter half of 2015 there will be national workshops on natural

resource management, land management and global changes.

Based on the outcome a research agenda and implementation plan

will be drafted.

1d DECONET

Another application for the call “Growing a Low Carbon, Resource

Efficient Economy with a Sustainable Supply of Raw Materials”

under the third pillar sub-programme Climate action, environment,

resource efficiency and raw materials, which NICOLE supported was

unfortunately rejected by the European Commission.

1e ROLE OF NICOLE

As a partner in two H2020 projects, NICOLE will have a seat in the in-

ternational advisory/ supervisory board. For the REMEDIATE project,

NICOLE will also play a role in the industrial mentoring, contribute to

training events, attend training events, accept Fellows for second-

ment, and assist with dissemination and outreach. With regard

to INSPIRATION, the contribution of NICOLE further consists of:

putting topics crucial for NICOLE on the research agenda, bringing

in the experiences with proven cost effective sustainable solutions,

representing all steps along the relevant actor chain, bringing in a

well-known established network, and its clear vision on sustainable

land management and use of the soil-sediment-water system.

6

NICOLE is part of the INSPIRATION project and Paul Van Riet is one of the 12 members of the International Advisory Board of the project . Anja Sinke was also invited in the name of NICOLE to participate in the Policy Oriented Work-shop held at the end of June/beginning of July in Brussels.How we use and manage land does impact nature and the ability to sustain biodiversity and provide ecosystem servi-ces. Land management needs to focus on sustainable use of natural capital and resources. The underlying premise of the EU Horizon2020 funded INSPIRATION action is that land and soil services are fundamental for:

• Meeting societal needs (food, drinking water, energy production, shelter, infrastructure)

• Overcoming societal challenges (climate change miti gation and adaptation, increasing demands on non-re newable natural resources, environmental justice).

The main aim of INSPIRATION is to develop a Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) to inform environmentally friendly, socially acceptable and economically aff ordable soil and land use management that meets societal needs and chal-lenges. INSPIRATION takes a bottom-up approach, because a SRA built on end-user knowledge demands is more likely to be enthusiastically adopted by funders in order to pro-mote the knowledge creation, transfer and implementation agenda. INSPIRATION has set the following specifi c objecti-ves as steps to enable the achievement of the project aim:

1. Establish the state-of-the-art in balancing supply and demand in resources and natural capital by land manage-ment and the way soil, sediments and water contribute at the national and European level.

2. Identify and prioritize key knowledge, technology, policy and understanding gaps in current activities in meeting soil and land use related societal needs and challenges across Europe and beyond.

3. Develop a needs & challenges focused Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) that can be tackled on a national and Euro-pean level.

4. Identify relevant existing and new funding and delivery models for implementing the SRA.

5. Bring together European public and private research funders willing to collaboratively and synergistically invest in delivering the SRA, or parts thereof, at local, regional, national and transnational scales.

INSPIRATION (2015-2018) is funded by the European Community’s HORIZON2020 Framework Programme under grant agreement no 642372.

Learn more about the INSPIRATION coordination and sup-port action on the project’s website: www.inspiration-h2020.eu

2 NICOLE AND INSPIRATION

Valérie GeurinBRGM, the French geological surveyAnd Stephan BartkeUBA

7

NEWS

NICOLE News - november 2015

3a THE EMERGENT CONTAMINANTS WORKING GROUP (ECWG)

started its work in May 2014 during a workshop of Nicole in Berlin. The fi rst selected contaminant was perfl uorooc-tane sulfonate (PFOS), Figure 1. It soon became clear that the problem could not be restricted to this contaminant but should be extended to other poly-/perfl uoroalkyl substances. The work that has been developed since then evolved in three diff erent sub-groups, focusing on: Legis-lation, Remediation Technologies and Investigation & Risk Assessment. The chairmen of these sub-groups are Tomás Albergaria, Birgitta Beuthe and Alan Wilson, respectively. The fi rst task of these sub-groups was to collect the most important and available information concerning each sub-ject, which was presented in Nicole´s workshop in Prague in November 2014.

Figure 1 – Chemical structure of perfl uorooctane sulfonate.

During 2014 Nicole and CONCAWE agreed to collaborate in the preparation of a document entitled “Poly-/Perfl u-oroalkyl substances (PFASs) - A review of their fate and transport characteristics”. The role of Nicole was to contri-bute with enriching reviews by the ECWG members to the CONCAWE document, which is in its fi nal revision phase and would be available until the end of 2015. In the ECWG meeting in Manchester (June 2015) several specialists in the distinct areas of interest of the poly-/perfl uoroalkyl substances were present, as well as a large audience (Figure 2).

Figure 2 – Emerging contaminant working group meeting in

Manchester, June 2015.

Three mini sessions were planned, each one with an invited speaker followed by a panel (constituted by 3/4 specialists) to discuss the mini session theme. For the fi rst theme, Legis-lation, Bruce Kennedy from CRC care was present. Bill DiGui-seppi presented his work on Investigation/Risk Assessment, namely analytical challenges, and fi nally Katerina Tsitonaki showed a Danish perspective on remediation technologies. According to the working group´s objective; cooperation with other institutions/networks regarding emerging conta-minants, the ECWG members were asked to fi ll in a “Questi-onnaire on Emerging Contaminants” that was proposed by the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment.

The future activities of this working group will be divided into two diff erent and clear paths: one will continue dealing with the poly-/perfl uoroalkyls and the other will select and start working on new emerging contaminants. Concerning the prolongation of the work with the poly-/perfl uoroalkyls it is expected that a document will be elaborated that inclu-des the most recent and important information concerning legislation updates, analytical methodologies development and new fi ndings on innovative remediation technologies. It is expected that this document could be updated regular-ly until the document represents an acceptable state of the art of the subject. The choice of the new emerging contami-nants to be assigned to the ECWG will be discussed in the next meetings.

At the same time other networks, such as the European Norman network, will be contacted to extend external collaboration. Norman network focuses on enhancing the exchange of information on emerging environmental sub-stances and encourages the validation and harmonization of common measurement methods and monitoring tools.

Are you also interested to join our WG on emerging conta-minants? Our next WG session takes place on Wednesday November 4 from 09.00- 10.30 in Brussels. You are welco-me to join and actively participate!

Chair: Tomás Albergaria, Instituto Superior de Engenharia do PortoBirgitta Beuthe, BP and Alan Wilson, ERM

3 2015 UPDATE FROM NICOLE WORKING GROUP REPORT

ject, which was presented in Nicole´s workshop in Prague in November 2014.

8

The Regulatory Working Group has the task to keep NICOLE members informed on the progress of upcoming relevant EU legislation and to share experiences of transposed EU legislation in the Members States (MS). This includes also analysis of the key issues in the (proposed) EU directives to allow NICOLE to approach the European Commission direct-ly if there is a need for debate.

In this article we give a brief overview of the different EU di-rectives and initiatives we are tracking and specifically more information on the ELD (topic of the November WS) and the status on activities related to the (withdrawn) SFD.

IED: INDUSTRIAL EMISSIONS DIRECTIVE. Main EU instrument regulating pollutant emissions from industrial installations. In the RWG we report on baseline definition, Best Available Techniques Reference Documents (Bref’s) and MS implementation of IED. http://ec.europa.eu/environment/industry/stationary/ied/legislation.htm

GWD: GROUNDWATER DIRECTIVE. The Groundwater Directive (2006) complements the Water Framework Directive (WFD). This GWD establishes a regime which sets groundwater quality standards and introdu-ces measures to prevent or limit inputs of pollutants into groundwater. NICOLE has been actively involved in the drafting of proposals for this Directive.http://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/water-framework/groundwater/framework.htm

ISO STANDARD 18504 SOIL QUALITY, Guidance on Sustainable Remediation. This guidance is in development. Several NICOLE members are involved as a national expert in their country. NICOLE is closely following the development of this guidance.

CPR: CONSTRUCTION PRODUCTS REGULATION; lays down harmonized rules for the marketing of construc-tion products in the EU. The Regulation provides a common technical language to assess the performance of construc-tion products. Importance for NICOLE members is in the discussion of soil as a construction material (e.g. for sound barriers) and re-use as soil. http://ec.europa.eu/growth/sec-tors/construction/product-regulation/index_en.htm

H2020, HORIZON 2020; EU Research and Innovation program with funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020). It is the financial instrument aimed at securing Europe’s global competitiveness. NICOLE is actively involved in two H2020 projects (Inspiration and Remediate).http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/what-hori-zon-2020

ELD: ENVIRONMENTAL LIABILITY DIRECTIVE. This EU Directive is a framework based on the polluter pays principle to prevent and remedy environmental damage. The Directive defines “environmental damage” as damage to protected species and natural habitats, damage to water and damage to soil. http://ec.europa.eu/environment/legal/liability/

The ELD has been in place since 2007, although enactment in MS has been variable, with some States not formally im-plementing the regime until 2009, and Italy being required to create new and compliant country legislation as recently as 2013. An interesting case recently passed through the Welsh Courts , whereby water pollution occurred in a lake in Wales. Natural Resources Wales and Welsh Ministers agreed that temporal provisions of ELD should have direct effect from the effective date for liability under ELD, which is 30 April 2007, despite the Welsh legislation only coming into effect in May 2009. Whilst this has no effect on similar decisions in other MS, it is an interesting precedent.

The EC was due to publish its Second Report on the ELD in April 2014, but has been delayed by a number of factors. The report is expected to consider the findings of the BIOIS Report of 2014 which undertook a wide-ranging consultation (including discussions with NICOLE), and set out proposals for possible changes to the regime. The report will also include as an annex the outcome of the REFIT evaluation as applied to ELD. This considers:• Relevance: To what extent do the (original) objectives

(still) correspond to the needs within the EU?• Effectiveness: To what extent did the intervention cause the

observed changes/effects? To what extent can these chan-ges/effects be credited to the intervention? To what extent do the observed effects correspond to the objectives?

3b REGULATORY WORKING GROUP UPDATE

9

NEWS

NICOLE News - november 2015

• Efficiency: Were the costs involved justified, given the changes/effects which have been achieved? What factors influenced the achievements observed?

• EU-added value: What is the additional value resulting from the EU intervention(s), compared to what could be achieved by MS at national and/or regional levels?

• Coherence: To what extent is this intervention coherent with other interventions which have similar objectives? To what extent is the intervention coherent internally?

• Major areas for possible change in the ELD include:• Making financial provision mandatory;• Making joint and several liability apply across all MS;• Removing defences of best practice and compliance with

a permit.The current programme for the Report is completion by the end of 2015, and publication in early 2016, although this remains provisional. In the meantime, ELD and its application has been very variable, and the last information published by the EU on individual MS activity is only up to the end of 2012.

SFD: SOIL FRAMEWORK DIRECTIVE. The Commission adopted a Soil Thematic Strategy 2006 with the objective to protect soils across the EU. A proposal for a Soil Framework Directive has been drafted but withdrawn in 2014. The Seventh Environment Action Program (2014), recognizes that soil degradation is a serious challenge and provides that by 2020 land is managed sustainably across EU.http://ec.europa.eu/environment/soil/index_en.htm

2014 saw the final withdrawal of the Draft SFD. To this end, proposals have been laid to change the strategy to deliver sustainable use and management of land- soil-water-sedi-ment system (soil ecosystem services), specifically conside-ring:• Prevention;• Sustainable use of the system;• Management;• Restoration when needed.

The European Commission is establishing an EU expert group on soils, comprising Member State governments, which will meet for the first time on 19th October 2015. The group is intended to inform the Commission’s thinking on how to progress EU action on soils. In parallel, the Commis-sion is recruiting consultants to review existing national soil protection measures and undertake a gap analysis. An initial consultation of Member States and stakeholders will take place in March 2016.

Laurent Bakker, Tauw, chair

Elze-Lia Visser-Westerweele, secretariat

Phil Crowcroft, ERM, chair

10

The SRWG is active since 2009, which is a long time for a NICOLE working group. The activities however are an important element in the mission of NICOLE which is the exchange of knowledge and to help members to manage contaminated sites more efficiently within a framework of sustainability. In the past the working group has prepared a guidance, a Road Map, and a Joint Position Statement with Common Forum (in 10 EU-languages). The experien-ces of our member with these supporting materials are currently being gathered in case descriptions. Slowly the working group enters more quiet waters more focusing on offering support to our NICOLE members instead of produ-cing documents. There is still a strong need to improve the uptake of SR. We will remain active to continuously work on the promotion of SR by stressing the benefits and need for more sustainable approaches. We are actively dissemi-nating our experiences at conferences and workshops like Renaremark in Sweden, Aquaconsoil in Copenhagen and even CleanUp in Melbourne. We participate in the global platform of the SuRFs (Sustainability Remediation Forums),

and are member of the scientific committee of the confe-rence SUSTREM 2016 in Montreal. For the near future we will investigate how we can improve our support for the NICOLE members or if there is a remaining need to look at the different legislative settings in Europe and how this facilitates or hampers the application of SR.

This year, 2015, has been proclaimed by the United Stati-ons as the “International year of soils”. Surely, the topic of soils, as seen in its broadest context from fertile soil for ecological or agricultural purposes to soil as a solid base for industrial activities, is still very much alive.In the past year we again welcomed several new members from different sectors of industry (Arkema, Bekaert, EDF) in our Berlin and Prague meetings. Their representatives soon found out that one of the benefits of being a NICOLE member is having the opportunity to share information and ideas. So they also got the opportunity to present themselves by giving a brief company presentation and explaining what keeps them busy.

As most of our members have company sites outside Euro-pe, we also tend to keep track of what’s happening overseas. Especially new developments in the US, like new standards or technical guidelines, are regularly on the agenda.Within Europe our members expressed some concerns about the proposed extensions of the Environmental Liability Directive (ELD) scope, such as deleting the optional permit and state-of-the-art defence, and the extension of

activities for which strict liability would apply. NICOLE sent a position paper to the EU Commission and was invited for a discussion.

NICOLE industry is also a stakeholder in the EU-INSPIRATI-ON proposal for Horizon 2020. It is based on 3 key premi-ses; setting a research agenda for the Soil-Sediment-Water system, deciding what we need for improved future land management, and better interaction between policy and science. Later this year there will be national workshops on natural resource management, land management and global changes. Based on the outcome a research agenda and implementation plan will be drafted. The Industry Group decided to define our research needs as industry, and discuss these with representatives from the Inspiration group during our Prague meeting. These could also pertain to substances of interest to industry like PFOS, rare metals, etc. The NICOLE workshop in Manchester on unconventional contaminants gave us plenty ‘food for thought’ in this respect.

Manchester, being the cradle of one of the ‘founding fathers’ (ICI) of NICOLE, also inspired us to think about

3c SUSTAINABLE REMEDIATION WORKING GROUP

3d UPDATE INDUSTRY SUBGROUP (ISG)

Laurent Bakker, Tauw, chair

Hans Slenders, Arcadis, Chair

11

NEWS

NICOLE News - november 2015

our own horizon. A lot has happened in the past 20 years. NICOLE has matured, and society has changed. The public expects us to have cleaned up any historical contamination by now or at least have it under control. There is also more societal attention for environmental issues and sustaina-bility. So, wouldn’t it be an idea, if industry, supported by the service providers and academics, put soil manage-ment in a broader perspective to show that they are truly committed to contribute to sustainable development, by performing their operations in a way that generates value for both business, environment, and society? Such a transition would also imply that we change our name (not the acronym), in which the word ‘contaminated’ has quite a negative connotation into a more positive and promising name? To be continued...

3e UPDATE SERVICE PROVIDERS GROUP (SPG)

Traditionally, the Service Providers Group (SPG) within NICOLE is comprised of both the commercial service provider members and the academic members. Over the past months, we have welcomed increasing activity among the academic members, and in Brussels this November the meeting programme includes a separate meeting of the academic members. An interesting development that could add value to NICOLE over time. Of course, as SPG, we will still welcome the academic members to (also) continue their participation in our meetings.

With eight new members, the SPG has experienced impres-sive growth during the past year, almost all of whom we have already welcomed at the Manchester workshop. With Alcontrol we welcome an international laboratory group, based in the UK, while France based Burgeap combines several knowledge fields for sustainable urban develop-

ment. Cornelsen, from Germany, immediately did well in the Tech Award competition (see below), and you may want to look out for the special workshop in Brussels on 6 November, in which Geovariances, from France, will be sharing some of their knowledge on geostatistics with us, and a knowledgeable consultancy firm Orbicon from Danmark .Our Transatlantic ties continue to be strengthe-ned with new members Golder Associates (originally from Canada), and the US based companies of Anchor QEA and Integral Consulting. And I suppose that, as NICOLE, we may now call ourselves truly global, with our first member from Australia, CRC Care.

Technology Award 2015Once again, the NICOLE Technology Award resulted in the showcasing of excellent technological achievements by SPG members. The 2015 Award was won by Claudio Albano, International Sector Project Delivery Manager with CH2M in Milan, Italy, together with his colleague Bill Diguiseppe. They received the prize at the Manchester workshop in June 2015 for their entry on “Solar/Wind-Powered Subgra-de Biogeochemical Reactors” (SBGR), after both the jury and the public vote named them the winners. SBGR is an application of the enhanced reductive dechlorination tech-nology, which is used to treat chlorinated volatile organic compounds in soil and groundwater. The jury praised, among other aspects, the use of renewable energy to reach a sustainable remediation solution. Close runner up this time was Quentin Hulm of Cornelsen, Germany, with the subject of “Innovative remediation technology for the treatment of PFC/PFAS-contaminated groundwater”, while third prize went to Richard Bewley of AECOM, UK, with the subject of “Brownfield Remediation of Hexavalent Chromi-um Using an Innovative Form of Calcium Polysulphide”.

Arthur de Groof, Grontmij, Chair

Elze-Lia Visser, Westerweele, SPG Secratary

Lida Schelwald-van der Kley, ISG Secretary

Paul van Riet, Dow, Chair

NICOLEnews - november 2015

12

Two years ago, the 68th UN General Assembly declared 2015 the International Year of Soils (IYS 2015), with a programme of events implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in collaboration with governments, professional bodies and other related organisations. The IYS 2015 aims to increase awareness and understanding of the importance of soil for food security and essential ecosystem functions. In particular, it aims to serve as a platform for raising awareness of the importance of sustainable soil management. Sustainable soil management is not only the basis for food systems, fuel and fibre production, and preserving essential ecosystem functions, but provides the key to adaptation to climate change for present and future generations. The objectives of the year are to; • Raise awareness among society and decision makers

about the profound importance of soil for human life; • Educate the public about the crucial role soil plays in

food security, climate change adaptation and mitigation, essential ecosystem services, poverty alleviation and sustainable development;

• Support effective policies and actions for the sustainable management and protection of soil resources;

• Promote investment in sustainable soil management activities to develop and maintain healthy soils for different land users and population groups;

• Strengthen initiatives in connection with the SDG process (Sustainable Development Goals) and Post-2015 agenda;

• Advocate for rapid capacity enhancement for soil information collection and monitoring at all levels (global, regional and national).

NICOLE’s work over the last 19 years has aligned with all these goals through its continual advocacy of sustainable land management and remediation practises.

SUSTAINABLE LAND MANAGEMENTNICOLE first publicly addressed the issue of sustainable land management in a 1997 joint statement with CARACAS, “Towards a Better Future: Establishing Fitness for Use and Sustainable Development of Contaminated Land in Europe”. In 2001, NICOLE co-sponsored a Special Edition of Land Contamination and Reclamation Magazine entitled “The sustainable management and remediation of contaminated Land”. This was followed

by a 2001 discussion paper on the need for sustainable Land Management which looked at the role of a risk assessment based approach that could deliver sustainable land management with an open and robust methodology to ensure land restoration was suitable for use.

SUSTAINABLE REMEDIATIONNICOLE’s advocacy of sustainable remediation has spread far and wide over the past eight years. NICOLE’s approach was to look at the prospect of land remediation and restoration from a wide and early perspective in considering how to treat a piece of land. The Sustainable Remediation Roadmap pointed to the fact that the greatest sustainability gains could be made by considering a remediation project in the context of landuse planning. The key point is that land should be restored to a suitable for use standard, thus encouraging re-use of land by removing the need for restoration to unreasonable standards. By encouraging the re-use of land, the pressure to build on pristine land and thus destroy valuable soil resources should be removed. The work was endorsed in a joint position statement between the Common Forum and NICOLE, sending a very strong policy endorsement for sustainable land management in the EU.

SOIL AS WASTE?Of the many important issues that NICOLE has spoken out on in relation to soil was the 2004 Van Der Walle European Court of Justice ruling that polluted soil was waste, rather than retaining its soil definition. NICOLE worked hard to gather evidence from around Europe and provide a position paper on the proposed changes to the Waste Framework Directive (WFD) to allow a more flexible and sustainable approach to excavated materials and allow a risk based approach in

determining the level of clean up required. This proposed breaking the precedent of the linkage between treated contaminated soils and their classification of waste, and supported the reuse, recycling and recovery of contaminated soils as a future resource. This also addressed the Van Der Walle issue and was implemented in the revised WFD.

4 INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF SOILS AND NICOLE

“The Nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.”

Franklin D Roosevelt

“Land planning at present is based on very simple considerations of what is practical in terms of

infrastructure. There is no consideration of soil quality and its ability to perform different functions. It could

be a major improvement if soil quality was considered in land management. A very simple example: building on polluted land could be more reasonable in many areas. Land planners need a better understanding of soil functions. Better characterization of soil quality

would promote sustainable land management.” Claire Chenu - Head of the scientific council for France’s national research programme on soils, Professor of soil sciences with AgroParisTech, and Special Ambassador for the International

Year of Soils 2015.”

NICOLEnews - november 2015NICOLEnews - november 2015

13

SOIL LEGISLATIONOver the duration of NICOLE’s existence, there have been many attempts to introduce an overarching Soil Framework Directive at a European level. Whilst blocked by certain member states who felt they had adequate and proportionate legislation in place to protect soil and supported by others who felt somewhat exposed in this area, NICOLE has paid great attention to the detailed wording of every draft and revision as it has unfolded. Always commenting to advocate a sustainability based approach to land use and management, NICOLE has captured a wide range of views of both industry and consultants across Europe on this contentious subject. 2014 saw the fi nal withdrawal of the Draft Soil Framework Directive by the EU.

Although there are no direct proposals currently active, the Seventh Environment Action Programme (2014), recognizes that soil degradation is a serious challenge and provides that by 2020 land is managed sustainably across EU. To this end, proposals have been laid to change the strategy to deliver sustainable use and management of land- soil-water-sediment system (soil ecosystem services).

The European Commission is establishing an EU expert group on soils, intended to inform the Commission’s thinking on how to progress EU action on soils. NICOLE will continue to track and comment making sure sustainable land management is at the forefront.

INTO THE FUTUREPotentially the biggest issues facing Europe are climate change and its associated impacts on the soil and water system. Storage of water is one of the key functions of a healthy soil system. In Europe, where we typically face an abundance of water rather than scarcity, ensuring we have enough storage in soils is paramount. Reducing the sealed areas is very important. This also has implications in how soils have been remediated historically. For some areas, soils have been sealed to prevent exposure to pollutants. Changing priorities means that this practise may be considered as unsustainable, as having a sealed surface may

increase fl ood risk. Continued soil sealing cannot continue unabated. NICOLE members have the ability to deal with this quantitatively and sustainable by looking at a wider range of technologies to achieve a sustainable remediation or restoration. And to take into account the wider benefi ts of the soil system in doing so.

Better characterisation of soils is also important. We need a better understanding of the baseline condition of soils before we develop land to make sure that whatever we do we don’t degrade the soil functions. NICOLE has a wealth of knowledge on soil characterisation that could contribute to this area and has a role to play in this.

NICOLE reaches its 20th year next year. In looking back at how NICOLE has contributed to the sustainable land management agenda and how that safeguards soil, we have also seen that there will be changes in the future as the climate changes and NICOLE will look forward to participating in the development of such an important area of policy and practice.

NICOLE is a network for the stimulation, dissemination and exchange

of knowledge about all aspects of industrially contaminated land. NI-

COLE has more then 100 members from 18 European countries. Mem-

bers include industrial companies and trade organisations (problem

holders), service providers/technology developers, universities and

independent research organisations (problem solvers) and governmen-

tal organisations (policy makers).

The network began in February 1996 as a concerted action under the

4th Framework Programme of the European Community, but with

strong support quickly became self supporting, fi nanced by the fees of

its members, in 1999.

www.nicole.org / nan.su@nicole.org

“It takes half a millennia to build two centimetres of living soil and only

seconds to destroy it”

Ann Glover – former chief scientifi c advisor to European Commission

Essentially, all life depends upon the soil... There can be no life without soil

and no soil without life; they have evolved together.

Charles Kellogg

Sarah MacKay - ERM

14

Dr Bruce KennedyCRC CAREAdelaide, South Australia

Bruce Kennedy is the Executive Policy Adviser and Program Leader, Best Practice Policy at CRC CARE, in Adelaide, South Australia.

He joined NICOLE earlier this year, and participated in the Manchester workshop on emerging contaminants.

Bruce is responsible for developing national guidance for the remediation of contaminated sites. In particular, work is underway on emerging contaminants (including PFOS/PFOA), the utilisation of fl ux-based approaches for the ma-nagement of groundwater contamination, and the develop-ment of the National Remediation Framework (which will complement the National Environment Protection Measure for the Assessment of Site Contamination). Amongst other things his role involves maintaining relationships with and inputs from regulators, industry and researchers, in order to assure high quality guidance acceptable to all parties.He was previously Executive Director of the National En-vironment Protection Council of Australia, which is a joint Federal/State government statutory authority. Bruce was responsible for national policy development for environ-mental protection matters within the remit of the Council, including the assessment of site contamination.

Whilst at NEPC, he was also Chair of the CRC CARE Policy Advisory Committee, providing oversight for CRC CARE’s po-licy related activities. Prior to joining NEPC, he held various managerial roles with the Western Australian EPA.Bruce has qualifi cations in chemistry and in management, and is a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, a member of the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand, and a Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK).

He joined NICOLE earlier this year, and participated in the Manchester workshop on emerging contaminants.I fi rst heard

of NICOLE after joining CRC CARE in 2011 - the impression I gained was that along with CLAIRE and SuRF, NICOLE was one of the pre-eminent networking organisations in Europe. I attended the Sustainable Remediation conference in Vienna in 2012, and from memory there were some sessions run by NICOLE. Participation in the Manchester workshop was a good fi t with the work we are doing at CRC CARE.

GWSDAT is a free software application, developed by the Shell ‘Statistics and Chemometrics’ and ‘Soil and Ground-water’ technical expert teams, which is open source, user-friendly and can be used for the visualisation and interpretation of groundwater monitoring data. GWSDAT key features include:• Visualisation of site-wide trends in solute concentrations,

NAPL thickness and groundwater elevation for conceptu-al site model development.

• Spatiotemporal analysis: variation in groundwater solute concentration is modelled as a function of X, Y and time.

• Automatic generation of concentration contour plots at user specifi ed time intervals, with the option to overlay groundwater elevation contours and NAPL thickness/footprint data.

• Automatic report generation tools with direct export of plots to Microsoft Offi ce applications (e.g. Word, Power-Point)

• New in version 2.1, GWSDAT calculates plume metrics quantifying and reporting temporal plume evolution.

The benefi ts of using GWSDAT include:• Improved data transparency during the design and opti-

misation of groundwater monitoring or remediation programmes.

5 REPRESENTATIVE OF NICOLE NEW MEMBERS

6a BEST PRACTIVE OF NICOLE MEMBERS

15

NEWS

NICOLE News - november 2015

• Early identifi cation of new releases, migration pathways, need for corrective action and stable/ declining trends that may aid in closure determinations.

• Rapid analysis of complex data sets from large monito-ring networks (e.g. refi neries, terminals).

• Effi cient evaluation and reporting of groundwater moni-toring trends via simple, standardised plots and tables created at the ‘click of a mouse’.

To fi nd out more about GWSDAT go to www.claire.co.uk/GWSDAT or www.api.org/GWSDAT

Elise Noël, SGW Policy and Advocacy Manager Societe des Petroles ShellEmail: elise.noel@shell

Frank Volkering (frank.volkering@tauw.nl) (Tauw bv, Deventer, The Netherlands)Edward G. Gatliff (Applied Natural Sciences Inc., Hamilton, Ohio, USA)Wim R. Staal, Paul A. van Riet (Dow Benelux bv, Terneuzen, The Netherlands)

INTRODUCTION Despite remarkable developments in in-situ groundwater remediation, hydraulic containment via pump & treat is still the standard method for preventing unwanted migration of conta-minated groundwater. While an eff ective technique, it is typically not very effi cient or sustainable. This paper presents an example of an alternative method for a hydraulic containment using the natural capacity of trees to extract water from the subsurface (phyto-containment).

Figure 1: Cross section dioxane plume

CASE STUDYAt a former 1,4-dioxane (dioxane) production plant at the site of Dow Benelux bv in Terneuzen, The Netherlands, groundwa-ter is impacted with dioxane, a highly mobile emerging con-taminant. Figure 1 gives a conceptual cross section. Although the dioxane production has ended, the groundwater in the shallow source zone still contains high dioxane concentrati-ons. A dioxane plume is migrating towards the site boundary via the shallow confi ned aquifer A and the deeper aquifer B. Pending the implementation of a source zone remediation, a sustainable method for preventing off -site migration of dioxa-ne was required. After assessment of sustainable alternatives, phytoremediation was selected as the preferred approach.

Compared to typical phyto-containment cases described in the literature, a number of complicating factors had to be overcome:• compliance with the safety regulations at an active chemical

production plant• the necessity of addressing deeper groundwater (5-11 m bgl)• the tidal infl uence of the nearby surface water• the regulatory approval for the use of UV-oxidation of

dioxane as removal mechanism

Figure 2: simplifi ed

representation of a modifi ed

TreeWell® unit

6b ENGINEERED PHYTOREMEDIA-TION AS A SUSTAINABLE METHOD FOR HYDRAULIC CONTAINMENT AT INDUSTRIAL SITES

Cover

Poorly permeable layer

fresh

saline

m +Dow

200 m

Dioxane storage

Dioxanereactor

Site boundary

>100 mg/l

10-100 mg/l

1-10 mg/l

0.05-1 mg/l

< 0.05 mg/l

Dioxane concentrations (mg/l)

5  m/y

A

B

0

4

m  -­mv

filter 4-6 of 7-10 m -mv

TreeWellliner

Watervoerend

pakket

Slecht doorlatende deklaag

Poorly permeable cover

Sandy aquifer

Root sleeve

clay

16

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATIONA fi rst design was made using conservative estimates of plu-me size and groundwater velocity and the available planting space. Since the plume is partly fl owing under a tank pit, the selected phytoremediation area of 0.8 hectare was located somewhat east of the center of the plume. A safety review identifi ed the potential of gas accumulation between the trees during a gas leakage as the main risk. This risk was mitigated by widening the planting grid. To prevent the risks of accidents and delay during installation, an off –site trial was performed.

Figure 3: impressions of installation

To be able to target the deeper groundwater, a modifi ed version of the TreeWell® system designed by Applied Natural Sciences, Inc. was used. In this modifi ed version, a graphical representation of which is given in Figure 2, a tube with two screens (“straw”) connects the TreeWell® unit with the deeper aquifer. Water uptake by the tree will result in the infl ow of groundwater from the aquifer below. Depending on the distance to the source zone, the deep screen of the straw was installed in aquifer A or B.

In February, 2013, a total of 240 modifi ed TreeWell® units were installed. In March 2013 poplar trees were planted in the units. In the autumn of 2013, an intensive hydrological monitoring system with MeetH2O sensors was installed which allowed hourly measurement of hydraulic heads at twelve lo-cations inside and outside the phytoremediation area. Figure 3 gives some impressions of the installation works.

Figure 4: Gradient in hydraulic heads aquifer A vs Aquifer B 2014-2015.

A positive gradient is indicative of hydraulic containment

RESULTSIn the fi rst two years after planting, tree health and tree growth are excellent. The results of the hydrological monito-ring are promising. Even though a large infl uence of the tidal river system complicated the interpretation, a clear hydrologi-cal eff ect was observed. Already in the fi rst year of monitoring, a full hydraulic containment was achieved. Figure 4 gives the aggregated result of all sensors in aquifer A and Aquifer B. In Figure 5 the cumulative eff ect is presented, showing a net hydraulic containment over 2014.

In addition to the positive hydrological data, the dioxane plu-me behaved exactly as expected. In the growing season, the dioxane plume is drawn eastward into the phytoremediation area. In the winter period, the normal situation is restored.

Figure 5: cumulative gradient in hydraulic heads aquifer A vs Aquifer B

2014-2015

To determine the fate of dioxane, evaporation of dioxane from the leaves was measured in the summer of 2014 and 2015. The evaporation was much lower than what was expected on the basis of the calculated dioxane uptake. At this moment it is unknown why so little evaporation of dioxane is found. Since recent scientifi c research has shown that the aerobic degradability of dioxane is better than previously assumed , biodegradation is expected to play a role.

CONCLUSIONSPhyto-containment is an economic and sustainable alternative for classical hydraulic contaminant containment by pump & treat. The case presented here clearly demonstrates that phyto-containment can also be successfully applied under diffi cult conditions at industrial sites.

Using a modifi ed version of the TreeWell® system it is possible to target deeper groundwater than with conventional phytoremediation approaches. The design of the phyto-containment can be adapted to meet safety requirements.

-­50

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

1-­3-­2014 1-­5-­2014 1-­7-­2014 1-­9-­2014 1-­11-­2014 1-­1-­2015 1-­3-­2015 1-­5-­2015

cumulative  gradient  aquifer  A  vs  B  (m)

date

cumulative  gradient  aquifer  A  -­ B