I am interested in hearing from anyone who has a procedure for sampling
imported 'inert' soils onto contaminated land site or have had any issues
regarding this subject.
I'm sure many of us have seen an increase in the number of cover systems
being used and therefore more 'inert' soil is being brought onto
contaminated land sites or where soil is being brought onto site as
backfill where dig and dump has been carried out.
The issue of imported 'inert' soil has raised many concerns to a number of
Councils I have spoken to and there seems to be no set guidance or
procedures on this issue.
Within this Council the minimum we require for developments using imported
soil is confirmation on the source of the material, supplemented with
analytical testing for a range of contaminants.
However, there are many practicality issues with this. Therefore I am
interested to hear the opinion of other contaminated land officers on this
issue and perhaps can answer the following questions:
1. How can you confirm the source of the material? (Duty of Care doesn't
always apply!)
2. What analytical testing should be carried out? (This is obviously
dependent on the source)
3. How many samples per truck load/m3/tonne?
4. When should the samples be taken?
I look forward to hearing from anyone
James Lemon
Land Contamination Officer
St Edmundsbury Borough Council
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