MIFO

Question 1

What does the term “contaminated site” refer to?

Answer 1

Refers to a well-delimited area where the presence of soil contamination has been confirmed

Question 2

What are the three most common sources of contaminents in the soil, in europe?

Answer 2

41.4%: Indutrial production and commercial service

15,2%: Municipal waste treatment and disposal

14,1%: oil industry

Question 3

What are the four most common contaminants in europe?

Answer 3

37,3%: Heavy metals

33,7%: mineral oil

13,3% Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH)

6%: Aromatic Hydrocarbons (BTEX)

Question 4

What is a potentially contaminated site?

Answer 4

it is a site where soil contamination is suspected but not varified, detailed investigation needs to be done

Question 5

What are the five most common contaminants in Sweden?

Answer 5

63% metals

13%: PAH

10%: Halogenated hydrocarbons

10%: dioxins

2%: oil

Question 6

What are some of the driving forces for soil remediation?

Answer 6

• ceased activities at the site
• change of owner (you buy the land, you buy the problem)
• planned use of the site change (ex the industry land is going to be used for urban expansion)

negative effects on the environment and the human health

Question 7

Who pays for remediation?

Answer 7

• the industry that has caused the pollution (PPP)
• the company that builds and sells houses
• taxpayers, for sites with no responsible body iidentified

Question 8

What is MIFO

Answer 8

a way to classify and compaire sites
(Metodik för Inventering av Förorenade Områden)

Question 9

What is included in MIFO 1?

Answer 9

it is a preliminary survey including:
- identification of relevant objects for assassement and industries

• data-collection from maps and archives
• on-site inspection
• interviews

Question 10

What is included in MIFO 2?

Answer 10

a preliminary site investigation including:
- an on-site inspection

• drawing of a geological profile and sampling plan
• sampling is done

Question 11

What classes are there in MIFO?

Answer 11

• class 1: Very high risk

-class 2: high risk

-class 3: moderate risk

class 4: low risk

Question 12

what is the risk classification in MIFO based on?

Answer 12

Four environmental quality criteria:
- Hazard assessment

• contamination level
• migration potential
• sensitivity/protection value

Question 13

What is a risk?

Answer 13

the probabilit and severity of adverse effects of a substance to the environment

-Ex. if the substance does not travel in the environment or in the human body ther is no risk

“is a combination of two things – the chance that the hazard will cause harm and how serious that harm could be”

Question 14

What is a hazard?

Answer 14

the inherent properties of a substance and the potential of a substance to cause an adverse effect

• A hazard is anything that could cause harm

Question 15

What is looked at at a hazard assessment?

Answer 15

• Which contaminants are present?
• level of hazard: from low to very high

Question 16

What is looked at when deciding the contamination level?

Answer 16

• level of contaminents in each of the media in which they occur, how serious are the effects?
• what is the deviation from the reference value?
• total amount of each pollutant
• total amount of contaminated material

Question 17

What is looked at when deciding the migration potential?

Answer 17

• how rapid the pollutant spreads through different media (soil, water)

Question 18

What is looked at when deciding the sensitivity/protection value?

Answer 18

• potential exposure of humans, present and future. the sensitivity of exposed groups
• potential risk for the environment, present and future. level of protection required

Question 19

Describe how a comprehensive assessment - risk classification can be done

Answer 19

• migration potential on y-axis (from slightly, moderate, large and very large)
• on x-axis: low, moderate, high, very high
• the risk classification moves from class 4 to class 1
• mark H (hazard), C(contamination level), S (sensitivity), P (protective value)

Question 20

What is random sampling?

Answer 20

• take the samples at random places
• usually used for uniform sites, ex. land-farming sites, mine and gravel pit sites.

Question 21

What is stratified random sampling?

Answer 21

• you have divided the location in sub-places (based on ex. vegetation cover, topograpgh, soil type)
• you take the samples at random places inside of the sub-places

Question 22

What is systematic or grid sampling?

Answer 22

• you divide the area in to a grid
• take a sample in simular place in each section (ex, in the upper left corner)
• OBS! elongated spread polutions can easily be missed

Question 23

What is systematic random samping?

Answer 23

• you divide the area in to a grid
• you take a sample at a random location in each of the sections

Question 24

What amount of samples are reasonable for different types of pollutant sources?

Answer 24

• hot spot: 1-3 per area
  (ex. tanks, cisterns)
• line source: 1 every 10-15 meter
  (ex. tracks, roads)
• no localized source: 20-30 per area if <1ha
  10-20 per area if >1 ha
  (ex. brownfield, landfills)
• areas without polluting activities (reference point): 5 per area
  (ex. forest, green areas, field)

Question 25

What are three ways to take samples?

Answer 25

• samples from excavated pits: dig down to 7 m
• sampling with drilling rig: can go deeper, samples at specific points, can be disturbed by rocks
• sampling with sonic drilling: you get a core, higher samling quality and quantity, less used because expensive