Contaminated Land Report

This report provides information on contaminated land, including its causes, effects, and treatment methods. It focuses on the treatment remedies for land contaminated with asbestos, ammonia nitrate, and benzene and its related products. The report also discusses regulations regarding the safe removal of asbestos and provides solutions for addressing land contamination and development values.

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CONTAMINATED LAND REPORT
By (Name)
Course
Professor’s name
University name
City, State
Date of submission

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Introduction
What is contaminated land?
Pollution is the introduction of harmful substances to the environment. Pollution is in
different forms; air, sound and land pollution. Contaminated land therefore is one that contains
harmful substances that could be detrimental to human beings and other living organisms
(BenDor, et al., 2011). Contamination may be caused by a number of substances ranging from
natural occurrences to human activities (Bardos, et al., 2011). Natural occurrences such as
volcanic eruptions, landslides and the mineralization process may lead to the introduction of
foreign and dangerous components to the land. Additionally, soil contamination can be caused
by human activities, specifically in regards to utilization of natural resources and waste disposal.
Currently in the society when land is found to contain harmful substances then it is put
under control in regards to modern industrial activities and land use policies. Recognition of the
presence of dangerous and harmful substances in the soil triggers action to ensure limitation or
total elimination of the hazardous substances (Cairney, 2012). Of importance to note is that in
the UK contaminated land is caused by technological changes or increased and uncontrolled
waste disposal thus rendering the piece of land not fit for other uses. Nevertheless, in the recent
years policies towards protecting agricultural and greenbelt land against development have been
enacted. The policies therefore leave over used industrial land for development purposes. In bid
to control contamination in the UK for the purposes of getting back the important natural
resources and also ensuring that development projects are done on a good piece of land efforts
have are focused on reducing cost of development, subduing technical hitches and reduction of
risks (Designingbuildings.co.uk, 2019).

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. Research shows that most contaminated land is found in urban and industrial areas. The
contaminated land in urban and industrial areas is mainly attributed to excessive and prolonged
industrial use thus exposing the soil to chemicals that are harmful to the environment thus
making the land not fit for other uses (Horikoshi, et al., 2014). In addition, waste disposal is a
menace in urban areas. High population in urban areas translates to high levels of consumption
and thus increased disposal. Uncontrolled waste disposal introduces land to pathogenic
substances that could be hazardous to human beings (Hou & Al-Tabbaa, 2014).
Contaminated land differs from idle and neglected land in the sense that the abandoned
land could result to physical damages, for instance a certain piece of land is set neglected due its
inability to sustain development projects (Hou & Al-Tabbaa, 2014). The results will be that the
building will come down crumbling and thus causing physical and even economic damages. So it
is quite important to clearly distinguish contaminated land and forsaken land. Contaminated land
is caused by introduction of harmful substances while abandoned land is as a result of its
physical form and nature which may not support any human activity (Hou, et al., 2018). The
weakness could also be as a result natural phenomena such as landslides and erosion or
uncontrolled development.
Site history
Leeds South Bank is a region that experience the birth of industrial Revolution, with a lot
of bustling activities due to numerous factories that flooded the area. During the 20th century,
Tetley Southbank become dilapidated as it was being phased out of the market while people
opted to go abroad for cheaper manufacturing products. South bank region at the moment attracts
business opportunity for the region that will witness tremendous growth. Tetley is a modern arts

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gallery constructed in 1931. This iconic building serves as the heart and the soul for the people in
Leeds, thus retaining it will help preserve the industrial history of the region.
Background information
The use of land for waste disposal or for industrial purposes may lead to chemical
contamination on the soil which may hamper or prevent future redevelopment of the land
because of the long term or short term health hazards that may affect the locals either directly or
indirectly and the construction process. Land that contain chemical substances in high quantities
such as asbestos, Ammonium nitrate, benzene and its related products are likely to cause harm to
the environment, and human beings either directly or indirectly. The clients concern on the
presence of the named chemicals will mean that the use of the land will be limited to some
extent, thus prevention measures have to be taken to treat and manage these contaminants before
construction can begin.
Client’s Concern
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After producing all the drawing designs for the proposed building and ensuring the client’s
design requirements are met, it is prudent to also ensure that the clients site concerns identified
are also addressed before the construction can commence. Since the site was reported to be an
industrial land, the client observed that the land was contaminated, which was evident in our
feasibility study which reported the presence of asbestos, ammonia nitrate, benzene and its
related products. Therefore, as the design consultant for the project, my work is to advice the
client on the treatment methods that will help in handling asbestos within the demolition works,

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decontaminating ammonium nitrate that has contaminated 30% of the site, and 30% with
benzene and its related products all found at a depth of 250mm while 40% of the site remains
uncontaminated.
Therefore, our main report will focus on the treatment remedies for land contaminated with
asbestos, ammonia nitrate and benzene and its related products.
Figure 1: Our site showing the contaminated land areas

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Aims and Objectives
The aim of this report is to provide our client, Leeds City Council, with the possible solutions of
addressing the contaminated land on our proposed Tetley Brewery Wharf site. To achieve this,
the following objectives were discussed;
 To identify the soil contaminants on Tetley Brewery Wharf site
 To identify the extent of the damage of the land
 To provide solutions that will address the land contamination and development values
 To provide soil management strategies for the land
Contaminated land soil removal, containment and treatment
Asbestos
Regulations Regarding Safe Removal of Asbestos
The Asbestos Safety Regulations clearly outline the conditions to be honored when
dealing with asbestos. Workers specialized with handling of asbestos have a body, Workers
Safety and Compensation Commission, whose main mandate is to ensure proper training for the

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workers and that all the set guidelines on the handling of the asbestos are followed to the letter.
This body clearly issues the asbestos limits which a worker should be exposed to. The set limit
stands at 0.1fibre/cc over duration of 8hours. However, if a worker is well dressed with
protective gears that have equipment that can filter out fiber, he or she can be exposed to higher
concentrations of the asbestos.
Once the asbestos have been successfully removed, safe disposal of the product lies with
the manufacturers. During the movement from site to disposal location, the asbestos should be
well packaged, labeled and documented. Finally, the manufactures are allowed by NWT to
dispose the asbestos at local landfills after approval has been given by the local municipality
authorities.
Removal of Asbestos
Before starting the evacuation of ACM in an involved construction site where different
procedures are occurring, the following have to be done first. Firstly, signage with the writings
"ASBESTOS REMOVAL – NO ADMITTANCE," should be erected. Secondly, confine access
to the expulsion zone to those individuals legitimately engaged with the asbestos evacuation and
site bosses (Hse.gov.uk, 2019). All moveable items should be cleared from the work zone. For
things that can't be moved, spread them in polyethylene sheeting. Taped or seal to make it
impermeable.
The next step involves assessing any difference in crisis departure and make important
provisions for putting out fires, emergency exits and emergency lighting. A fire exit strategy
ought to be agreed on with the nearest fire-fighters. For the purposes of ventilation, it is
important to keep the extraction area under negative weight 24/7 with at least 4 air changes for

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every hour or a static weight of -5 Pascal relative to the static weight of different zones and
outside the walled in area (Katz, et al., 2009). All mechanical ventilation devices should be
switched and no air form the work area should be allowed to escape to the other rooms.
Before excavation process begins, the involved agent will carry out air contamination
tests on the areas around the excavation room. After all air tests have been done, the agent should
now endure that he is properly dressed for the procedure. Great care must be taken to guarantee
material from the work region walled in area does not relocate from the fenced in area. And this
is ensured by providing areas within the demarcated area where the agents can take a shower and
wash hands after they are done with the procedure (Katz, et al., 2009).
Once all precautions have been taken concerning the isolation of the room and safety of
the agents, a hindrance tape and cautioning signs in vicinity to the work zone are introduced. The
removal process then begins and it is cautioned that no dry removal of the asbestos should be
allowed. However, individual made pieces just as free flotsam and jetsam can be wetted and
grabbed by hand and set into 0.15mm polyethylene packs with printed asbestos cautioning marks
(Luo, et al., 2009). Don't intentionally break pieces into littler sizes to make it simpler to pack or
transport. Bigger pieces may require bigger packs or plastic wrapping as opposed to stowing. In
this occasion, asbestos names should be physically joined to the wrapping, recognizing it as
asbestos squander (Kheirbek, et al., 2012). For the sharp excavated edges, they should be put in
the plastic bags and then put into labelled wooden boxes.
The spread of asbestos dust from the quick work zone should be controlled by measures
proper to the work to be finished. This incorporates the utilization of drop sheets of polyethylene
or other appropriate material, utilization of moist disposable clothes to gather dust, and the
utilization of HEPA vacuums to gather dust (McLaughlin, et al., 2018).

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As removal continues ensure the extraction item is wet, except if wetting makes a peril or
causes harm. Repeat the wetting habitually amid the work and right after completion of the
process. Tidy up residue and waste containing asbestos and expel it with a vacuum outfitted with
a HEPA channel. Drop sheets must be discarded as asbestos squander. They ought to be wetted
down or HEPA vacuumed, twofold packed away for disposure (Zhuang, et al., 2009).
After the evacuation of asbestos has been finished, the whole zone including the
sterilization zone, is wet cleaned and vacuumed with HEPA channels to clean up all noticeable
build-up. The equipment used is wet cleaned, washed and enveloped by polyethylene, or set in
plastic packs, and floor brushes are fixed in plastic packs and cleaned later or disposed of as
Asbestos waste (Zhuang, et al., 2009). A sealant is then connected to the whole region and to the
staying plastic.
Workers engaged with the clean-up undergo sterilization. The showers are destroyed and
expelled last, all together that representatives occupied with the tidy up methods can utilize them.
Ammonia nitrate
Excavation is likely could be the most appropriate method of dealing with the mess since
the sullying is decently shallow and the volume moderately little. Incomplete uncovering may
now and again be important so as to either touch base at wanted site levels or to make space for a
clean spread layer (Meuser, 2012). At the point when the last is done it is prudent to give
adequate clean fill to empower minor administrations to be introduced without delving into the
defiled soil.

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It is significant that when the contaminated soil is kept somewhere else, it might at the
appropriate time become an issue with time. The issues which can be experienced are very much
represented by the instance of the removal of a previous tar refinery site.
The proposed recovery conspires for the 30% contaminated land was as per the
following: Isolation of the site by complete fenced in area with sheet heaps, down to the base
dirt, at a profundity of 3m (McLaughlin, et al., 2018). This would restrain the development of
tainted groundwater on and off the site. Secondly, the de-watering of the site by a siphon and
ring-primary to a little scale treatment plant including a sedimentation tank and three-organize
oil interceptor and after that release to the foul principle by means of a water expert exchange
effluent assent (Luo, et al., 2009)t. The next step is solation of the debased zone by establishment
of a bunded mud divider down to base dirt in the zones where the degree of sullying could not be
unmistakably distinguished. Uncovering would then proceed up to the bund to the extent was
vital. After that excavation of all the material inside the confined territory down to clean earth
with transfer to a notifiable waste site with an underlying evaluated volume of 40000m3 and
finally a backfill with clean soil (McLaughlin, et al., 2018).
The clean choice is significant on the grounds that it offers an extreme arrangement in
spite of the fact that there will frequently be a related waste stream to discard. The procedures
can be completed using a portable or briefly raised plant nearby or at a focal treatment office.
The treated soil might be come back to the uncovering, discarded as a waste, or utilized as a fill
or some other advantageous reason (Luo, et al., 2009). One of the grievous symptoms of a large
number of the treatment forms is that the soil is rendered idle and isn't appropriate for use as a
developing media without revision with manures and natural issue. There will be the need to
altogether assess the presumable conduct of tainted soil after treatment procedure and to consider

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the natural effect of the working plants (Kheirbek, et al., 2012). A choice to receive such a
procedure will likewise bring up the issue of how clean the dirt/treated material must be before it
very well may be supplanted in the ground or put to some other advantageous use.
Benzene and other products
At the point when benzene is uncovered in the air, it responds rapidly with different chemicals
and is broken down a couple of days. Benzene disintegrates much slower in water and soil. Soil
and groundwater become contaminated with benzene because of leakage from underground gas
storage tanks, landfills or perilous waste sites that handle benzene or from industrial release or
inappropriate transfer of benzene-containing items (Katz, et al., 2009).
Treatment of benzene in contaminated land
Soil Vapor Extraction (SVE)
Soil vapour extraction (SVE) is a procedure used to expel vapour-stage petroleum from
the vadose zone. Soil vapour extraction works by making negative weight inclinations in a
progression of zones inside the unsaturated soil (Hou, et al., 2018). This negative weight causes a
subsurface airflow. The air in the soil is supplanted with natural air that strips the vapour stage
hydrocarbons from spaces between soil particles in the vadose zone. SVE changes the balance
with the goal that benzene in its fluid or adsorption stage moves to the vapour stage (Hou & Al-
Tabbaa, 2014).
The achievement of soil vapour extraction relies upon the accompanying components:
soil dampness content, profundity to the water table, the unpredictability of the contaminant, soil
porosity, and temperature. Lighter, increasingly unstable contaminants, for example, BTEX

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synthetic concoctions are removed more effectively than heavier contaminants, for example,
warming oil or fuel oil (Horikoshi, et al., 2014). The extricated vapours from SVE must be
treated before discharge into the air. Charcoal adsorption or reactant burning is frequently used
to treat the extricated soil vapour. Granulated charcoal channels adequately clean the vapour
however the channels must be supplanted regularly and are costly (Katz, et al., 2009). The
exhaust systems oxidize benzene vapours to carbon dioxide and water however this strategy has
high upkeep costs
Biodegradation
Benzene is generally not totally expelled from the soil by soil vapour extraction alone
because some of it remains in solution form as well as adsorbed onto soil particles.
Biodegradation is utilized to expel the remaining contaminants that do not promptly move into
the vapour stage (Cairney, 2012). Biodegradation is where microorganisms, which incorporate
microscopic organisms or growths, separate hydrocarbons and produces carbon dioxide and
water. Most microbial action happens in the aqueous layer on the outside of the soil particles
(BenDor, et al., 2011).
Biodegradation Enhanced By Bacteria
Organisms are seeded dependent on the method of reasoning that the indigenous
microorganisms might be overpowered if there is an abrupt hydrocarbon influx. Microbial
populaces present in the dirt may set aside a long effort to work to adequate dimensions to
deteriorate the benzene and other BTEX mixes (BenDor, et al., 2011). Furthermore, indigenous
organisms may not be fit for separating complex hydrocarbons. The fundamental preferred
standpoint of seeding is to diminish the slack time before the indigenous microorganisms work in

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adequate numbers to successfully separate the hydrocarbons. Acquainted organisms need to have
similarity with the indigenous microorganisms, develop rapidly, successfully breakdown the
hydrocarbons, and have a non-lethal impact on nature (Bardos, et al., 2011). Finding the suitable
microorganism that can work under the particular soil states of the healing site can be
troublesome. Indigenous microorganisms are exceptionally adjusted to the site and will normally
increment after a hydrocarbon spill into the dirt. In the end, indigenous microscopic organisms
will outcompete any remote microorganisms and refute their capacity to break down benzene
(BenDor, et al., 2011). In this manner, including microorganisms might be superfluous.
Biodegradation Enhanced By Oxygen
Electrons released amid the hydrocarbon breakdown must be acknowledged by another
component or compound. Benzene biodegradation happens most rapidly under oxygen-
consuming conditions. The accessibility of oxygen in soils and aquifers can be restricted relying
upon the sort of soil and whether the dirt is waterlogged (Horikoshi, et al., 2014). In regular
biodegradation, water is utilized to convey oxygen or the elective electron acceptors. In any case,
these endeavours have met with constrained achievement since water is an insufficient
transporter of oxygen (Hou & Al-Tabbaa, 2014). Additionally, the issue of giving satisfactory
measures of oxygen in water is aggravated by a lot of oxygen required by benzene in its
debasement. Biodegradation of benzene requires something like 3 grams of oxygen for every
gram of benzene.
Conclusion
The problem of land contamination associated with asbestos, ammonium nitrate, and
benzene have been well contained and treated as discussed above. Before the removal of the

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contaminants on site, health and safety measures were taken in consideration to avert any hazard
or danger that may result into an explosion. The presence of asbestos on site is assessed before
any demolition works begin. Ammonium nitrate is mainly used as a fertiliser on soil, it can be
contained by pouring concrete and building on top of it. Benzene and its related products are
taken care of by excavation, after which the removed soil are treated off site and new soil is then
replaced. The efforts taken to abate the chemicals on land will invariably deal with
predetermined hazards and ensure the safety of the building and the health of its occupants.

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