jock78 wrote:Re Soccaroo's comment about a desktop study of brownfield sites.
My point was about chemical waste being dumped in a number of sites which I know about by numerous agencies over extensive areas. This is not information easily obtained by any desk-top study but only from local knowledge.
Sites such as the extensive whinstone quarries of Dennistoun and the large, previously derelict area between the Monkland Canal and the Molindinar east of Milnbank Street which had been in previous industrial use ( Bleach-works?).
A desk top study would identify the previous use but not how, if and when dumping had taken place. Only an extensive series of boreholes specifically taking in a manor such that it could identify individual components which had been previously deposited would be necessary.
I note that both these extensive areas had in fact been developed over the past 60 years. Has such a study been done prior to development?
Would present day planners even be aware of this previously unrecorded dumping?
I strongly suspect that such dumped areas have been simply levelled-off and capped, and indeed, removing any such contaminants would raise additional problems of disposal.
jock 78 MRTPI (ret)
All brownfield sites and most greenfield sites these days have bore holes, trial pits and chemical analysis of the soils as part of their site investigation. The desk study is only part of the steer towards what the testing regime is likely to be. Further testing of any soil going off site from excavations, or to be relocated elsewhere on site requires to be classified through Waste Acceptance Criteria testing prior to being moved or removed.
Yes, there is guidance these days that if some contaminants are well below a site and there is no danger to human health through pathways such as water courses etc, then the site can be capped with inert soils, and kept under roads and hard landscaping etc. But that is dependant on what the contamination is, and where its located.
Thorough testing of soils, capping layers and anti dig membranes and demonstration of same to Building Control through evidence submissions and site visits is the norm these days.