Sustainable Remediation

  • Print
Page 1 of 2

Content Table


 IMG 0202  P1190312  IMG 0302

 

  • What is sustainable remediation?

    Sustainable remediation is defined as the practice of demonstrating, in terms of environmental, economic and social indicators, that the benefit of undertaking remediation is greater than its impact and that the optimum remediation solution is selected through the use of a balanced decision-making process.

  • Why do remediation?

    The quick industrial development in the country has brought benefits to social and economic levels. However, this growth has often developed without regard to the environment, which can lead to a slowdown in obtaining these benefits and reduce these results.

    The development of environmental management programs should involves the remediation of the land and water resources that could be affected in a negative way for any industrial projects.  The alternatives propuses by r3 will help to reduce these levels under threshold limits with a high sustainability of the benefits.

    The pressure and irresponsible exploitation of our natural resources has been a matter covered permanently in our legislation and it requires strict compliance.

    Legislation in Colombia on contaminated soils is not specif in one document. There are regional guides and standards by the Regional Autonomous Corporations, this is mainly because the soil resource is a fundamental part of any terrestrial ecosystem, therefore it is referred to a general protection of the resources and not exclusive to soil contamination. However, the national government is developing a specific standard for the control of contaminants in soil and it will be mandatory.

  • Why adopt a sustainable remediation?

    If poorly selected, designed and implemented remediation activities may cause greater impact than the contamination that they seek to address. The best solution is remediation that eliminates and/or controls unacceptable risks in a safe and timely manner, and which maximises the overall environmental, social and economic benefits of the remediation work.

    The application of this sustainability framework will realise a number of benefits for users including for example:

    • Contributing to sustainable development at a number of levels including regional development plans, development of site master plans and site specific remediation strategies;
    • Demonstrable commitment to sustainable development and sustainable remediation;
    • Effective management of risks to human health and the environment due to land contamination;
    • Maximising the value delivered by remediation by optimising the cost benefit ratio;
    • Better Regulation and cost savings by demonstrating the need not to implement unnecessary or unsustainable remediation measures;
    • Positively demonstrating corporate and environmental social responsibility and managing public relations.

    Source : “A Framework for Assessing the Sustainability of Soil and Groundwater Remediation, 2010”