CASE STUDY By ALcontrol Labs
Online Test Data Improves Remediation Efficiency
Quick and easy access to test data combined with the ability to schedule analytical work is helping remediation contractor VSD Avenue to maximise the efficiency of work to clean up one of the UK’s largest and most heavily contaminated sites.
The £172.3m clean-up operation at the Avenue Coking Works near Chesterfield in Derbyshire has been underway for over a year and project director, Marcus Foweather says: “Over the lifespan of this project ALcontrol will have tested in excess of 10,000 samples for between 5 and 18 species. This data is critical to the ongoing management of the remediation activities, enabling us to identify soils for treatment and to check that cleaning operations comply with the required specifications. Almost all process management decisions are therefore affected by test data, so the ability to access results through ALcontrol’s online ‘@mis’ system has been a fundamentally important part of the project’s success.”
Background Historically, the land at the Avenue has hosted a variety of industries; primarily the coking works but also a large chemical plant, a liquor by-products works, a large rail head, a hazardous waste tip and two large contaminated silt lagoons. Covering 80 hectares (almost the size of 200 football pitches), the site presented a substantial challenge to VSD Avenue which is a joint venture consisting of civil engineering contractor VolkerStevin Ltd, DEME environmental contractors (DEC) and SITA Remediation.
The reclamation and remediation is being funded by the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) through the National Coalfields Program. The site remains owned by the East Midlands Development Agency (emda) which is acting as delivery agent for the project. This redevelopment process started as early as 1999 with the emptying of above ground storage tanks and the dismantling and demolition of the above ground infrastructure and buildings. The site was razed but was left with a host of contamination problems below ground including the remaining sub surface infrastructure and contaminated soil and groundwater.
The completed project will create a substantial development platform for residential plots and
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employment space for light industry. The remaining three quarters of the site, once remediated, will be returned to the community for various uses, including open spaces, sports pitches and a nature reserve, creating high quality habitats for a wide range of local flora and fauna including water voles, bats, butterflies, great crested newts and many other species.
Complex remediation challenge The volumes associated with the project are unprecedented in the UK remediation sector; over 2 million cubic metres of material are being excavated with a significant volume of this having to be processed. Within this over 100,000m¬3 of contaminated sediments from the site’s silt lagoons are also being processed. The lagoons were originally built either side of the River Rother which passes through the site and there is a waste tip above one of the lagoons.
The range of contaminants and the breadth of physical variation of the material have called for a number of different remediation techniques.
The site’s thermal desorption plant is the largest in the UK and utilises advanced ‘off gas’ treatment and filtration systems to ensure compliance with stringent emissions criteria.
Two large aerated bio beds treat a further 75,000 m¬3 of hydrocarbon contaminated material and an innovative on site water treatment facility employing a combination of chemical oxidation and biological degradation treat the cocktail of phenols, thiocyanates, benzene and ammonia in the waters.
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