New South Wales is a massive state with plenty of new works underway. From apartments to houses, parks to waterworks, there is no shortage of industry happening in Australia’s most populous state. However, any new project undertaken comes with the risk of working on a contaminated site, one in which facilitates air, soil and water pollutants.
Expert contaminated site management is imperative when a worksite is found to harbour pollutants of a chemical, organic or radioactive nature. After all, any one of these pollutants can pose a significant threat to human and wildlife, and therefore must be remedied before work can continue.
Naturally, there are various elements that go into this vital eco-protection solution, and we are going to discuss them below:
1.Site Analysis
The first element that goes into contaminated site management is comprehensive worksite analysis. Experts conduct this analysis to understand what kind of pollutant is present and how dangerous it could be both humans and local wildlife.
To undertake worksite analysis, the experts must first conduct historical research to define what past activity could be leaving contamination remnants. Next, they will conduct a thorough sample and analysis of the worksite’s air, soil and water to pinpoint what, exactly, is contaminating the worksite.
2.Risk assessment
Once the experts have defined the risk they must then go on to assess its danger. This is, of course, the level of danger it poses to both humans and the local ecosystem. There are a huge number of chemical, organic and radioactive pollutants that convey various threat levels to humans and the environment and they must be analysed before remediation.
For example, asbestos is still present in many NSW buildings, and this can include buildings that are set to be used for a range of future projects. Unfortunately, asbestos can lead to asbestosis, lung cancer, mesothelioma and other deadly health problems, so its threat must be properly analysed before remediation.
3.Remediation
Once they have defined the threat and assessed its risk the experts must then go on to remediate the contamination. After all, what would be the point of having experts define the contamination without the means to remediate it? They will enlist a range of treatment methods to ensure that this specific contamination is properly removed and for good.
For example, if a worksite’s soil is found to contain toxic chemicals, the remediation experts must go to work on properly excavating and removing that soil so that it doesn’t pose a threat to humans and wildlife. They may also conduct treatments like pump-and-treat solutions, in-situ technologies and more to ensure that the worksite contamination is properly remedied.
4.Ongoing monitoring & maintenance
Your remediation experts must then provide ongoing monitoring and maintenance to ensure that their remediation is working and that the threat of recontamination has been reduced or completely alleviated. After all, there would be absolutely no point in remedying a contaminated site if it was to regress to a polluted state.
To do this, they provide ongoing air, soil and water sampling whilst maintaining their solutions and analysing worksite conditions. This ongoing monitoring and maintenance can continue until the experts are convinced that the worksite is safe from further contamination.
5.Community & stakeholder engagement
It is important for both the remediation experts and worksite operators to engage with their community and stakeholders to ensure they are aware of the dangers associated with the worksite before, during and, potentially, for some time after its remediation. This way, any risk of harm to local humans and wildlife is greatly reduced during the remediation process.