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Media Resources :: Newsroom
Contaminated Sediment Clean-Up:
Letting Nature Take Its Course
13 January 2006
Natural recovery can often serve best when it comes
to the clean-up of contaminated sediment. The impulse
to take aggressive action to satisfy public concern
does not always reflect proper environmental stewardship,
say researchers in a new study published in the latest
Integrated Environmental
Assessment and Management. The paper is part
of a series entitled “Finding Achievable Risk Reduction
Solutions for Contaminated Sediments.”
Aggressive remedies such as dredging or capping may
pose relatively high risks for workers, local communities
and the environment. The study’s researchers highlighted
an example in Grasse River in upstate New York. Removal
of 27% of polychlorinated biphenyl mass from sediments
had little measurable impact on fish tissue levels.
However, such an intrusive remedy may alter the geochemical
conditions in the sediment, which could open the door
for a more toxic metal.
Remedies may be unnecessary in cases where natural
weathering, sediment burial and contaminant transformation
reduce toxicity and exposure to acceptable levels. According
to the researchers, environmental harm can be avoided
by careful evaluation of the risks associated with contaminated
sediment clean-up.
The researchers said that the combination of human
and environmental risk assessments along with the use
of multivariate decision-making methods will prove most
effective for future success of environmental remediation.
This combination, and the collaboration among experts,
engineers, economists, specialists and community stakeholders,
will provide the needed objectivity for site analysis.
To read the entire study, click here: http://www.allenpress.com/pdf/ieam-02-01-16_59..65.pdf
Integrated Environmental
Assessment and Management is a quarterly journal
of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry
(SETAC). For more information about the Society, visit
www.setac.org. For
more information about Integrated
Environmental Assessment and Management, visit
http://setac.allenpress.com/entconline/?request=index-html.
[Importance of Implementation and
Residual Risk Analyses in Sediment Remediation; Integrated
Environmental Assessment and Management] 2006;
Vol. 2(1):59-65
Contact:
April M. Phillips
T 850 469 1500 x 28
aprilp@setac.org
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