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Introduction: Environmental Hazards of Soil Pollution and Remediation Advances
The land is considered to be contaminated when there are a lot of pollutant substances that are very harmful to us and also to the land. These harmful particles can be present on the top of the ground and also under the ground which makes more trouble for the ground. These particles can also create soil pollution by these harmful particles and sometimes there was water pollution by these substances.
Here, because of those harmful particles, the land becomes contaminated and for that reason, the ground has become hazardous for the people and the animals that live there. Sometimes the land beside the contaminated land can also be affected by it and there must be noticed those types of problems. So, every local council must be observed and also lead some surveys under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 which provides a procedure to recognize all the contaminated grounds in their own area.
Task 3
Legislation
Environmental Protection Act 1995 is the current legislation for all contaminated land where it provides some sections, probably 125 which are divided into five parts, giving the regulation over contaminated lands (Poderati et al. 2022). The environment agency and the Scottish environment protection agency, contaminated land and abandoned mines, national parks, air quality, and the miscellaneous, general, and supplemental provisions are the five parts of the acts. Here the Act displays the establishment of the environment agency and the Scottish environment protection agency to deliver the transfer of the functions, property, requests, and disadvantages to the corporate structures and also conferring other structures for them. To make the condition with respect to the contaminated land, and also to control the pollution. Here the Act also helps to preserve the natural resource and also improve the environment by extracting harmful particles from it (Bikerman et al. 2021).
Geo-environmental Assessment
Basically, Geo-environmental assessment is used to identify the geotechnical and geoenvironmental hazards on the contaminated sites. There are some steps to complete the process of removing hazardous particles from the contaminated sites. Here also gives a conceptual model for the land and suitable use for the land by investigating the harmful particles which are present in the ground. Also, get an overview of the ground and the groundwater condition through the geo-environmental assessment. Below the steps of the geo-environmental assessment are briefly described.
1. Desk Study
The first step in the geo-environmental assessment is the desk study where key information was reported to the ground investigation reporting phases. Also, identify the geotechnical and geoenvironmental particles on the sites. Here basically desk study decides who commissioned the work, the developmental approaches, proper applications, and others noted part of the contaminated sites (Ganie et al. 2021).
2. Provide Development
Here basically using the desk study gives the best development for the contaminated land which is non-hazardous for the environment and also for the people. Here the aim of the assessment is to provide a suitable and effective development for the site which reduces the pollution rate over the contaminated land and also harmful particles from the site.
3. Site location and description
The site location shows the side address, and grid reference, and also in the description part delivers the concept of extension of the sites where it defines the boundaries and the topography of the sites. Here an inspection of the sites can be done which gives the information about the building, watercourses, vegetation, trees, hard standing, and other particular particles. Here the vegetation information shows the soil and groundwater condition of the contaminated land. The interior and exterior of every building on the property should be examined for signs of structural damage, such as tilting, cracking, or chemical attack. It is important to record any indications of subsurface features. Locals can frequently provide useful information when it is practical, although care should be used when dealing with "peoples' recollections." Local place s, such as Gas Works Lane, Water Lane, Tannery Road, etc., can provide helpful hints about previous uses (De Vos et al. 2022).
4. Site History
Here this part delivers the past history of contaminated land and also of the land and it is very important for reducing the biochemical hazards of disasters and also saving the ground, water, and also people from pollution. Using the desk study collects the all-important historical mapping information from some specific source for the sites where all the mapping indicates the usability of and availability of the historical components and the particles which are present on the sites in the past.
5. Geology, hydrogeology, Hydrology
Basically, all geology of the site's area is shown on the British geological survey which provides existing ground investigation records. Here the geology information is very important for the sites because if there are any faults in them then it is very harmful to the site and also to the people who lived near the contaminated land. It should be noted that these records may include information from earlier site investigations in addition to information on the immediate area. Technical studies, flood risk assessments, and memoirs from the British Geological Survey can be used to complement the material on the geological maps (Bolade et al. 2022). Geology is the branch that deals with the study of the solid earth and this portion is used to deal with the mineralogy, geodesy and the stratigraphy. The introduction of the geophysical science begins with the mineralogy because the earth is nothing but the foundation of the minerals, the inorganic elements. The inorganic elements have the regular formation for in their shape and atomic level. The atoms have a regular shape means they are aligned in proper order. The total numbers of the minerals for the earth is about three thousands; the study of geology deals with this all minerals. The source of the mineral is basically three types and their generation processes are sedimentary, igneous and metaphoric type. The sedimentary type is formed by the digenesis of the sediments developed by the different steps. Igneous type is formed by the magmas or the lavas emitting form the deeper of the grounds of the earth through the volcanoes. The metamorphic type is generated by the recrystallization process during the different temperatures and pressures of the earth’s higher atmospheric levels. Geochemistry is the subpart of the geology and this part is focused on the study and research of the minerals.
Here in the hydrology part, it suspects the pollution level of the groundwater and also provides the flood risk data of the contaminated ground which is updated by the local authority and the environment agency. And also check the surface water of the contaminated land to check if the water is drinkable or not, which is very important for future inhibition and also to overcome the pollution issues on these particular sites. Hydrology is the important part deals with the study related with the most important of this earth as water. Geologists and engineers deal with this part to study about the most valuable resource water that exists under the deep levels of the ground. Hydrologists depend upon the information how the water interacts with the surface of the earth’s atmosphere and gets back into the source level. They basically try to understand the water cycle and the facts that affect the water cycle. Due to sunlight and other warming factors the waters of the oceans and ground levels evaporates. This evaporated mixture interacts with the warm airs of the earth and it raises higher levels of the atmosphere. As they reach higher levels of the earth it is then converted into the clouds due to the cooling down effect of the air with increase in the height. Moisture is then turned into the rain and after this they reach the earth’s surface as the drops of rain. The water from the rain then reaches again into the ground water levels and it becomes the part of the ground water. The water that is not absorbed yet reaches the river and other resources and maintains the water levels of those water resources. The cycle repeats again when the evaporation and cloud generation process is repeated in similar way. The moisture captured by the trees from the ground water is also released by the evaporation and this process is known as the transpiration process. The hydrology field also deals with the quality of the water management for the human lives and the impacts of the contaminated water for the humans. Hydrologists are focussing their work to improve the qualities of the water and make the water quality better for better utilizations of water resource.
6. Records of pollution and radon
Here this assessment provides all information on pollutant particles of the contaminated lands and also defines the risk for future pollution possibilities in those contaminated grounds. Here also requires incorporating radon protection measures by the risk maps of the land which is produced by the health protection agency.
7. Environmentally sensitive designation
A proper and structural layout for the reuse of contaminated land is very important for the environment and also for the people. Here a sensitive environmental design helps to remove hazardous particles from these lands and also reduces the harmfulness of the environment which is very important.
8. Conceptual site model
Here the Act provides a solution to establish better habitation between the pollution particles and the people and the environment. But it is important to remove those harmful particles from the contaminated land and it is possible after getting a proper and effective site model layout for the site (Chandrajith et al. 2022.
Remediation
The best remedy for the contaminated site or the lands is basically measuring the pollutant particles which are present in the ground of the sites. Here, take the soil sample and check the level of the impurities present in the soil of the site it is very important for the usage of the land in the future. If their level of pollutants is high then the land is not well suitable for the framing so here the agency could not provide or allow farming on this land in the future. There were a lot of prescriptions for the reuse of the land which is basically biological treatment based on environmental pollution, bioremediation, Phytoremediation, bio-polling, composting, and many other remedies.
Task 4
Discussion Group
LinkedIn is selected as a discussion group for the “web-based engineering network” and the question of the discussion is “Thermal Treatment”.
Describing this tropic briefly the thermal treatment is basically two types: thermal desorption and incineration. Here thermal treatment is one of the remedies for contaminated land. Thermal desorption is basically a technology on a separation system that is conducted physically. Here in the process, the organics are desorbed from the soil without deterioration. Here the semi-volatile and volatile organics are removed from the soil in thermal desorbed at some specific temperatures. The procedure makes use of an inert carrier gas to move the water and organics that have been volatilized to the gas treatment system. Condensers or carbon adsorption units that trap organic chemicals for later treatment or disposal are two examples of gas treatment units (Bhaskar et al. 2021).
Figure 1: Topic for the Group Discussions
Figure 2: Social media structure for the Group Discussions
The part of using incineration gives the proper remedies for polluted soils with some organic compounds. Incineration is the most likely used procedure but it has lots of problems that lead to some noise and air pollution and it is also expensive. Organic pollutants are meant to be permanently destroyed by incineration technology. Incineration is more than simply a straightforward furnace; it is a sophisticated system of interconnected pieces of machinery. It consists of a coordinated system of parts for the preparation of waste, feeding of waste, burning, and emissions control.
Conclusion
With the help of this Act, the local council can make the decision to remove or reuse these contaminated sites and also provides remedies to reduce the risk for the people and also for the environment. Here this report shows the legislation for the contaminated sites and how to reuse it with all the harmful particles in mind.
References
Bhaskar, B.P., 2021. Geo-environmental assessment in semiarid region of Pulivendula tehsil, Kadapa district, Andhra Pradesh, India.
Bikerman, A., 2021. Replacement of the Transfer Act: The Impact of Connecticut's Effort to Expedite Contaminated Site Remediation.
Bolade, O.P., Akinsiku, A.A., Oluwafemi, O.S., Williams, A.B. and Benson, N.U., 2021. Biogenic iron oxide nanoparticles and activated sodium persulphate for hydrocarbon remediation in contaminated soil. Environmental Technology & Innovation, 23, p.101719.
Chandrajith, R. and Diyabalanage, S., 2022, July. Geo-environmental assessment of geochemistry of groundwater and associated human health risks in the dry zone terrain of Sri Lanka. In Meeting Global Challenges: A Transdisciplinary and Transnational Approach (p. 213).
De Vos, B., Souza, M.F., Michels, E. and Meers, E., 2022. Industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) in a phytoattenuation strategy: Remediation potential of a Cd, Pb and Zn contaminated soil and valorization potential of the fibers for textile production. Industrial Crops and Products, 178, p.114592.
De Vos, B., Souza, M.F., Michels, E. and Meers, E., 2022. Industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) in a phytoattenuation strategy: Remediation potential of a Cd, Pb and Zn contaminated soil and valorization potential of the fibers for textile production. Industrial Crops and Products, 178, p.114592.
Ganie, A.S., Bano, S., Khan, N., Sultana, S., Rehman, Z., Rahman, M.M., Sabir, S., Coulon, F. and Khan, M.Z., 2021. Nanoremediation technologies for sustainable remediation of contaminated environments: Recent advances and challenges. Chemosphere, 275, p.130065.
Poderati, G., 2022. Analysis of China’s legislation on soil contamination in the light of the realization of an ecological civilization. Ecocycles, 8(1), pp.8-15.
