Industry driven CRC cleans up contaminated sites
Picture courtesy of Rio Tinto Coal Australia
Backed by $55 million in funding from major mining, oil, defence and other industries, $30 million from the federal government, and in-kind contributions, this is an industry driven CRC involving the cleanup of large contaminated sites as well as the development of prevention technologies that focus on environmental sustainability, according to the CRC’s Managing Director designate at UniSA, Professor Ravi Naidu.
Australia has an estimated 100,000 potentially contaminated sites in cities and regional areas across the nation and the cost of cleaning up these sites is estimated to exceed $5 billion.
“As cities continue to expand, new residential areas sometimes encroach on abandoned industrial and mining sites and landfills. Soils at these sites often mask toxic chemicals and other contaminated waste that may leach into groundwater, enabling pollutants to find their way into agricultural and other products that end up on our dinner plates. It is these toxic time bombs that impact on our environment, which can impact on human health, and have an influence on our international trade,” Professor Naidu said.
Professor Naidu has seen first hand the devastation caused by arsenic contamination of water in Bangladesh, where millions of wells drilled to provide clean drinking water for households have been found to carry arsenic dissolved out of the surrounding environment. Up to 40 million people in Bangladesh have been exposed to arsenic, which causes unsightly black sores, blood circulation failure to hands and feet and gangrene sets in.
With a team of UniSA scientists, Professor Naidu is leading an international effort to assess the level of risk in Bangladesh and to develop technologies and strategies to minimise that risk.
Arsenic poisoning affects many countries in the Himalayas, and stems from different origins in countries such as Argentina, Canada, the United States, and in Australia around disused gold mining towns in Victoria.
CRC CARE researchers will develop tools for monitoring pollutants in the air, soil and water from contaminant groups including metalloids, heavy metals, petroleum hydrocarbons, industrial solvents, asbestos and persistent organics such as pesticides and explosives.
Biotechnologies are being developed to remediate contaminated sites using microbes (micro organisms) already present in the environment. Biotechnologies are important because they are cost effective and environmentally friendly. They work effectively on petroleum hydrocarbon contaminants and other persistent organic pollutants in soils. The CRC will develop cost effective tools to assess the bioavailability of these contaminants in soils.
Industry partners have made available a number of national contaminated demonstration sites within each state. Scientists will work with risk assessors, remediators, legal and community people to develop, test and validate solutions and convert them into technologies for use on soil and groundwater at these sites. The CRC aims to commercialise these technologies and use them on other sites across Australia and overseas.
“Communities within demonstration sites will form part of the cleanup process from the outset so that they know what is involved and are happy with what we are doing. Societal communication can be very difficult but is an important part of the program. We are developing strategies for communicating with people who might be affected by contaminated land.
“Another important role for the CRC will be working with the national securities division of the Prime Minister and Cabinet to develop tools to monitor our nation for acts of chemical terrorism. This will enable us to respond quickly to the presence of gas or poisonous chemicals in our environment,” Professor Naidu said.
Prevention technologies are an essential part of the CRC and will include technologies to convert industrial waste into a form that can be used on the land, where nutrients can be extracted and toxic residues have no effect on the soil.
The CRC is also ready to respond to the latest wave of disaster in tsunami affected regions where salt is becoming the new villain, causing damage to infrastructure (it eats concrete), eroding soil, reducing productivity and making fresh water salty. Australians have led research on salt affected soils and the CRC could bring together a team of scientists to find the best possible solution and assist governments to invest relief funds in sustainable projects.