Summary and conclusions

Kortlægning af jordforurening i børneinstitutioner

In January 2008, the Minister for the Environment decided to move forward a planned investigation of the status for efforts made by local and regional environmental authorities concerning soil contamination in childcare institutions. The purpose of the investigation is to report the status with respect to contaminated as well as slightly contaminated soil at childcare institutions, including an account of the future plans for the individual areas.

The investigation is based on a web-based questionnaire study which involved the participation of all the Danish Regions and Municipalities in the spring of 2008. This report describes the results of this study.

The main conclusions from the investigation are listed below:

Since the last study in 2006, there has been an increase in the number of childcare institutions registered (mapped) as contaminated sites either at knowledge level 1 (V1 – suspected) or at knowledge level 2 (V2 – documented). Mapping of soil contamination is an on-going process, and the number of institutions mapped as V1 and V2 is expected to continue to change in future. The data material in this investigation is assessed to be of a very high quality and representative of the efforts made by regional environmental authorities to reduce soil contamination in childcare institutions.
To date, the Regions have registered 53 childcare institutions mapped at knowledge level 1 (V1), while 214 have been mapped at level 2 (V2). According to this investigation, all the Regions will have completed investigations at the institutions registered at knowledge level 1 (V1) to enable either registration at knowledge level 2 or deregistration by 2009.
Activities have been initiated or are planned at all childcare institutions mapped at knowledge level 2, and where there are identified risks associated with sensitive land use. The Regions expect to have completed the planned activities at the childcare institutions mapped at knowledge level 2 in 2009. On the basis of this investigation, it is not possible to precisely assess how many of the institutions have been investigated by the environmental authorities (either by the former Counties or after the reform in 2006, by the present Regions), or to assess how many of the institutions need further investigation.
All the Danish Regions have in common that they have either prepared a strategy for the investigations and a time plan for their implementation, or they are collecting data for the preparation of a strategy with respect to soil contamination at childcare institutions. One common feature for the strategies is that the work is to a great extent based on the co-operation between the Regions and the Municipalities in that the Municipalities provide information on potential point sources. The strategies are therefore based on potentially contaminated sites selected jointly by the Regions and Municipalities, and the Regions can then initiate further investigations and activities. The investigation strategies developed by some Regions focus on whether the childcare institutions have been affected by diffuse contamination resulting in soil contamination exceeding cut-off criteria, thus requiring activities to prevent contact with the contaminated soil.
The Municipalities have reported that rather more than 65% of the childcare institutions are placed in areas classified as urban soil according the area classification system (i.e. areas that are expected to have slightly soil contamination) or in areas that are otherwise slightly contaminated. This means that extrapolated to a national scale about 3,300 institutions are likely to be situated in urban soil classified areas or other slightly contaminated areas. The risks to human health associated with slightly contaminated soils are however relatively low, and can be further reduced by following simple advice such as washing hands after contact with the soil. According to the Act on Soil Contamination, the urban soil classification comprises all urban areas, unless the Municipalities have exempted certain areas. Other areas outside the urban area can also be classified as slightly contaminated on the basis of knowledge of soil contamination. The requirement concerning area classification became effective on the 1^st January, 2008, and it can be expected that within the next few years, the Municipalities will be able to exclude many urban areas, which are not contaminated, and as a consequence of this, the number of childcare institutions in the urban soil classified areas is also expected to decrease.
57% of the Municipalities have provided advice concerning preventive actions to all childcare institutions in urban soil classified areas or in other slightly contaminated areas. The majority of the remaining 43% of the Municipalities report that they are planning advisory actions to be initiated in 2008. The Municipalities are therefore well underway with guidance to childcare institutions located in urban soil classified areas or in other slightly contaminated areas.
The Municipalities are not obliged to perform investigations or cleanup of soil contamination at childcare institutions, but they can choose to carry out investigations. 20 municipalities have made special efforts, such as cleanup, removal, and cover systems to prevent contact with slightly contaminated soil at a total of 112 institutions.
Well above 50% of the Municipalities (54) have performed investigations (for example historical reviews and/or chemical analyses of soil samples) with the aim of identifying potential soil contamination. 5 Municipalities have not reported how many investigations they have carried out, but the remaining 49 have reported investigations at 1,669 institutions, 796 of which are placed in the Municipalities of Copenhagen and Frederiksberg. This means that soil contamination has been investigated at approximately 33% of all childcare institutions. 43 Municipalities plan to make further investigations at their childcare institutions, and 32 of these have previously performed investigations. The majority of the Municipalities expect to complete their activities during 2008 or 2009. A total of 65 Municipalities have either performed investigations or plan to make investigations.
One third of the Municipalities report that either the Region or the Municipality have identified childcare institutions where the soil contamination is above the cut-off criteria requiring actions to prevent contact. This is the case at 276 childcare institutions, of which 204 are situated in the Municipalities of Copenhagen and Frederiksberg. The remaining 72 institutions are situated in a total of 28 Municipalities, with only very few institutions in each Municipality. The number of institutions where soil contamination has been found to exceed the cut-off criteria can not be compared directly to the institutions mapped at knowledge level 2 (V2), due to the fact that the 276 institutions referred to in this report may have been deregistered after cleanup.
A more detailed examination of the 276 institutions which have been reported to be contaminated at a level above the cut-off criteria by either the Region or the Municipality reveals that the following activities have been initiated. The Municipalities of Copenhagen and Frederiksberg have made a great effort with respect to investigations and cleanup of soil contamination at childcare institutions and soil contamination above the cut-off criteria has been cleaned or removed at a total of 204 institutions. The remaining 28 municipalities with soil contamination above the cut-off criteria have carried out 81 remediation activities at the remaining 72 institutions. Of the 81 remediation activities, 28 institutions with soil contamination above the cut-off criteria have been cleaned up or the contamination has been removed, at 12 institutions, a protective cover layer has been established, and at 6 institutions, other kinds of remediation actions have been implemented. In the remaining 35 cases, the Municipalities have not been involved in the cleanup activities as the Regions were in charge of the remediation activities.

The investigation also shows that the Municipalities and the Regions co-operating to a great extent in the handling of soil contamination at childcare institutions, and that there is an extensive sharing of knowledge.