Technology Programme for Soil and Groundwater
Contamination 2000

4. Areas of special interest

The "Programme for Technology Development and Contamination of Soil and Groundwater, December 1996" /3/ features descriptions of the contamination areas against which the Technology Programme should be directed during the next five years. These areas were identified on the basis of information from the ROKA Database 1995, where e.g. the frequency of the various contamination types in soil and groundwater were compared. This identified the following contamination areas (areas of special interest) to be addressed by the programme during the next two to five years:

	Soil and/or groundwater which has been contaminated by chlorinated solvents.
	Soil contaminated by heavy metals.
	Oil/petrol contamination of soil and groundwater (including MTBE).
	Tar/PAH contamination of soil (including NSO compounds).
	Combined contamination.
	Landfills with leaks of landfill gas.

During the next few years, measures must continue to ensure testing and documentation of methods for remediation of contamination which threatens the groundwater (chlorinated solvents and oil/petrol contamination, including MTBE contamination). Moreover, plans have been made to test methods against tar/PAH contamination. There are still plans to test various in-situ technologies. In addition to this, plans have been made to extend tests of various existing or new soil-remediation plants, e.g. with regard to combined contamination and heavy-metal contamination which both present a significant soil-contamination problem. Future projects will focus on the quality of the end product which appears after remediation, with especial focus on assessing whether the remediated soil can be used freely.

In special situations, it may be relevant to test methods for remediation of hotspots with pesticide contamination.

For future projects, an important area of special interest will be environmental assessment and financial assessment of individual techniques and of remediation as such. In addition to this, an important area of special interest will be the efforts to minimise operating costs for the various remedial measures. During the following years, techniques will also be tested within the other areas of special interest.