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The environmental liabilities associated with soils contaminated with chlorinated hydrocarbons is an alarming corporate concern, a global environmental problem and represents a growing market opportunity for treatment companies like Bennett. Identified clean-up sites in USA amount to some $200 billion in costs which includes millions of tonnes of soil to be remediated. The US Environmental Protection Agency estimates there are over 55 million tonnes of PCB-contaminated soils on their national priorities list alone. In Canada the estimated quantity is up to 5 million tonnes. Numerous defense radar sites in the Canadian Arctic are contaminated and are now starting the clean-up with resulting soils going to treatment facilities.
The amount of contaminated soils stockpiled and identified annually is a challenge to estimate because of incomplete records, but government agencies are enforcing more rigorous listing and registration of contaminated sites in order to quantify the liability and begin the task of developing clean-up action plans. Federal, State and Provincial government agencies are identifying more and more sites. In USA the EPA National Priorities list includes over US$ 7 billion in projects and in Canada there are at least 10,000 toxic sites awaiting clean-up.
In 1988, when the Québec Ministry of Environment & Fauna created the Group to Study and Restore Contaminated Soils (GERSOL), approximately 1,300 sites were identified with associated clean-up costs of over CAN$ 1 billion. In 1993, the number of sites had risen to 1,343. The recent Hazardous Materials Regulation (Section 2.0) plus the existing Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA), Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA) and the provincial environmental assessment acts will require the prompt and final disposal of soils contaminated with hydrocarbons and chlorinated contaminants. At present, there is no proven, cost-effective and practical alternative to thermal treatment.
For more information please contact us at info@bennettenv.com
© 2001 Bennett Environmental Inc.
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