Authors:
Prof. Jaana Sorvari | Aalto University | Finland
Seppo Nikunen | Pöyry Finland Oy | Finland
Jussi Reinikainen | Finnish Environment Institute, SYKE | Finland
Outi Pyy | Finnish Environment Institute | Finland
Anna-Maija Pajukallio | Ministry for the Environment, Finland | Finland
In Finland, the number of potentially contaminated sites, recorded in the national database known as MATTI, currently totals some 25 000. Most of these sites have not yet been investigated but it has been estimated that 11 000 sites need to remediated in the future. The estimated cost of these activities is 4 billion euros. At the same time, state funding is scarce and covers roughly only 5-10 % of the total costs. Hence, in most cases the costs of remediation need to be paid by private problem owners. This is a challenge from the viewpoint of the realization of sustainable contaminated site management (CSM) since no incentives actually exist to consider all components of sustainability in decision making. In addition, there are several practical barriers to the achievement of CSM. The national soil remediation strategy that is currently under preparation would be the major policy instrument when striving for sustainable CSM. This strategy will be founded on policy goals, where community planning; remediation action programme; identification of priority areas and their recovery within the next 25 years; reuse of soil after remediation; use of risk assessment procedures; feasible remediation methods; interactive and proactive planning; and comprehensive data systems are the key factors. Only quite recently new guidelines for the assessment of soil contamination and risk management needs were released that include some principles of defining which remediation options are considered sustainable. In addition, some additional tools to solve the practical barriers to CSM are already in hand.
In Finland,soil remediation is still mostly based on excavation and treatment/re-use/disposal. Most of the excavated soil has been used in the closure of old landfills. Since majority of the former landfills have already been restored, new options need to be found for the excavated soils, or alternatively in situmethods need to be more widely adopted and soil reuse encouraged. However, for the remediation of former service stations and other sites with the distribution of oil-based fuel a funding system known as SOILI-programme has proven to be besides an efficient financing instrument, also a way to promote the use of in situ remediation techniques. SOILI is a voluntary remediation programme, implemented by the Oil Industry Service Centre (OISC), owned by the Finnish Petroleum Federation. SOILI and its follower JASKA receive funding from the national Finnish Oil Pollution Compensation Fund that collects money from the Finnish Oil Companies for the management of oil spills. Another important funding instrument, i.e., the state funding system is undergoing some renewals with the aim of focusing remediation actions on the sites where the actual risks are the highest.
While in situ techniques are frequently used at sites remediated by SOILI or JASKA programmes, limited availability of remediation techniques and expertise is an obstacle to their use in other types of contaminated sites. The small size of the market is one reason for the low availability of more novel remediation techniques. Moreover, logistic issues, i.e. long distances, create a challenge to the establishment of soil treatment facilities.
The session is linked to Theme 1 and it is organized by Jaana Sorvari (Aalto University), Outi Pyy (Finnish Environment Institute), and Seppo Nikunen (SOILI and JASKA programmes/OISC / Pöyry Finland Co). The session aims to present how Finland has tried to solve the problem of the implementation of sustainability principle in CSM, when both the economic and human resources are scarce, market is limited and the practical issues such as logistics and lack of guidelines create barriers to it. The session starts with the moderator’s (J. Sorvari) short introduction (10 mins) that gives an overview of these issues. In the following talks the topics to be covered include description of the national remediation strategy and guidelines, the use of economic instruments, and current use of in situ remediation methods. The specific titles are: National remediation strategy and renewing of the state funding system/Anna-Maija Pajukallio (Ministry of the Environment); New guidelines to implement sustainability principle in CSM/Jussi Reinikainen; Experiences of the use of in situ techniques vs. traditional dig and dump/Seppo Nikunen; and a case study on addressing soil contamination in an expanding city during and by means of the planning of new areas/representative form the City of Helsinki (Kaarina Laakso/NN). Each talk will take 10 mins. After the presentation of J. Reinikainen, the moderator asks the audience to write down (anonymously in pieces of papers that have been distributed to them beforehand) 1) their ideas on the most important policy instruments in and 2) the major barriers to the achievement of CSM (in their own country). The time reserved for this task is 10 mins. The moderator then collects the notes and gets familiar with them during the next presentations. The last presentation is followed by a moderated panel discussion and interaction with the audience. The presenters form the panel group. The moderator starts the discussion by summarizing the most common issues recorded in the notes collected from the audience and activates the panel members and audience to discuss based on these. Experiences on in situ remediation methods will also be discussed.