In a bid to keep costs at a minimum and save on landfill, the Corporation will now be using landfarming and soil stabilisation techniques to treat contaminated soil onsite.
The Macquarie Point Development Corporation’s CEO, Mary Massina, said the proposed practice will minimise volumes of highly contaminated soil requiring to be shipped to landfill.
“Landfarming is a technique used to reduce organic contamination such as petrol, diesel and oil through bioremediation systems which generally use tilling or ploughing to reduce contaminant levels biologically.
“This includes creating favorable conditions through oxygenation, moisture and nutrients to increase already occurring bugs in the soil to aid in naturally remediating it.”
Another method the Corporation will be implementing is soil stabilisation – the process of reducing heavy metal contaminants by preventing it from leaching into clean soil and groundwater.
“The soil stabilisation process involves applying commonly used farming chemicals to bind together contaminants in the soil which are not biodegradable. This binding prevents the heavy metals from leaching into the water table and other clean fill.
“Using these two techniques will benefit the environment and be a cost saving to the Corporation,” Ms Massina said.
The Corporation will begin onsite decontamination in the coming weeks.
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Media contact – Amira Vaatstra 0438 132 939