Remediation of Contaminated Sites

Remediation and redevelopment of contaminated sites is a challenging process. Property owners need to have a high level of assurance and comfort regarding the technologies that have been reviewed and selected for site cleanup and brownfields redevelopment. Performance benchmarking to assist in the establishment of acceptable performance criteria would enable brownfields owners and managers to identify and select proven technologies using a stakeholder-driven process and, in turn, provide greater assurance to investors, regulatory authorities and the public.

Current ETV Canada Activities
Remediation technologies that are at the commercial stage usually have to go through demonstration testing for regulatory approval. The data generated during demonstration for regulatory approval are usually of sufficient quality and quantity for application to the ETV Canada program. To date, ETV Canada has verified 10 technologies in the remediation area. In addition, ETV Canada has considerable experience in the development of sector-specific and technology-specific testing and verification protocols in the remediation area. Examples include – the “Technology Specific Verification Protocol for Site Remediation Physical/Chemical Technology” (1998), the “Technology Specific Verification Protocol for Bioremediation Technologies” (1998), and the “Technology Specific Protocol for Phytoremediation Technologies for Metal Contaminants” (1999).

To promote value-added initiatives within the area of contaminated sites, ETV Canada is cooperating with the following organizations:

Montreal Centre of Excellence for Brownfields Remediation (MCEBR) - ETV Canada and the Montreal Centre of Excellence for Brownfields Remediation (MCEBR) are seeking to cooperate in areas of mutual interest, including further promotion of performance verification as a mechanism to facilitate technology commercialization. Both organizations recognize the need for a common strategy to address barriers to the successful commercialization of environmental technologies.

MCEBR owns and operates a facility dedicated to brownfields technologies located in Montreal, and has the proven capacity and necessary infrastructure to function as a contaminated sites remediation technology demonstration center. MCEBR also has access to the necessary expertise to be designated as an ETV Canada Verification Entity for brownfields remediation technologies. ETV Canada and MCEBR are also following up with Environment Canada and others on proposed federal remediation initiatives and the possibility of establishing a federal contaminated sites remediation technology screening mechanism. A resolution recently adopted by the executive committee of the Montreal Centre of Excellence for Brownfields Remediation (MCEBR) in March has confirmed the intent of MCEBR to negotiate a cooperation agreement with OCETA and ETV Canada. A meeting took place between MCEBR and ETV Canada in Montreal in May of 2006 to discuss these efforts. For further information about MCEBR, please refer to www.cemrs.qc.ca.

SAIC Canada - Discussions regarding the development of specific protocols in the remediation sector are underway with the Environmental Technologies Program at SAIC. Environment Canada and SAIC have agreed to use a portion of their contract funding to examine and contribute to the subject of remediation technology verification protocol development. The proposed SAIC work plan will be instrumental in helping to facilitate stakeholder engagement in the remediation area. Following the SAIC review it would be appropriate to establish a multi-stakeholder consensus-building process which would serve to identify an initial set of acceptable performance criteria, ultimately leading to the development of recommendations for the implementation of credible remediation technology test methods and verification protocols for Canada. For further information about SAIC Canada, refer to www.saiccanada.com.

EURODEMO – EURODEMO is a European Commission (EC) funded project which aims to become the central contact point in Europe in the field of soil and groundwater remediation. EURODEMO has recently established an interactive European database for innovative technology demonstrations in the field of soil and groundwater remediation. Links to ETV Canada and ‘aboutRemediation.com’ have been established. For further information, refer to www.eurodemo.info.

ETV Canada is also working with Environment Canada regional representatives in the development of a proposal to undertake a literature review and prepare a “catalogue” of currently available decision support tools to help federal contaminated site decision-makers understand, assess and manage risk. The proposed work would include an assessment of the most appropriate decision-support tools from the catalogue to help determine the best strategies and applications for supporting remediation of federal contaminated sites. This would then lead to the development of a training program for decision-makers with guidelines on how to apply the relevant decision support tools for assessing risk and making effective decisions.