UK Promotes Sustainable Land Remediation
6/2/99
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Title: UK Promotes Sustainable Land Remediation
Source: Environmental News Service
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: June 2, 1999
LONDON, UK, June 2, 1999 (ENS) - A new public private partnership
will play a major part in driving forward the Blair government's
commitment to sustainable remediation of contaminated land, said
Environment Minister Alan Meale today.
CLAIRE (Contaminated Land : Applications in Real Environments), will
work closely with site owners, technology vendors and researchers to
establish a network of test sites. The sites will broadly represent
the main types of contaminated sites that occur across the UK.
The new company will co-ordinate demonstrations of new remedial and
innovative technologies on these sites. They may be full-scale
technology demonstrations or small-scale field trials to allow
researchers to develop their new technologies. CLAIRE will publicize
the project outcomes.
Welcoming the establishment of CLAIRE, Meale said, "I am delighted
that CLAIRE is now up and running. I am confident that its role as a
major facilitator of remedial technology demonstrations will make a
significant contribution to the regeneration of brownfield lands."
Hydrogeologist Paul Beck has been named as the chief executive of
CLAIRE. Beck has 24 years experience in the characterisation of
subsurface materials and the assessment of environmental conditions,
particularly as they relate to contaminated land.
Beck comes from working as co-ordinator of groundwater quality for
the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. He has developed remedial
plans for contaminated sites, advanced proposals for assessing
remedial technologies for demonstration and has conducted risk
assessment analysis on contaminated sites. He has provided opinions
to prospective purchasers as to the impact of soil and groundwater
contamination on the market value of properties and has provided
litigation support and expert witness testimony on issues relating to
contaminated land.
CLAIRE is supported by the UK Department of the Environment Transport
and the Regions, Local Governmentclamation Panel, Pennon Group, RJB
Mining plc, Scottish Enterprise, Scottish Power, UK Research Councils
and Unilever.
CLAIRE's members include the Soil and Ground Water Technology
Association, The Environment Agency, Department of Environment
Northern Ireland, Scottish Environment Protection Agency, and the
Welsh Development Agency.
An important member is the newly formed English Partnerships, a new
regeneration and development agency for England created May 10. The
English Partnerships was created by combining the roles of the
Commission for the New Towns and the national functions of the Urban
Regeneration Agency with all of the powers that these two
organisations had in the past.
As one of the country's largest landowners with a portfolio of more
than 12,000 acres, English Partnerships aims to achieve the cost
effective re-use of previously developed, contaminated, brownfields
land. This will be done in partnership with central and local
governments, the Regional Development Agencies and the private
sector.
The new English Partnerships will be involved in projects including
the regeneration of the 300 acre Greenwich Peninsula site in London.
This project is creating 3,000 new homes and transforming a former
gas works into a new urban neighbourhood.