In Situ Remediation of a 14 Million Litre Fuel Spill at a Former Military Base

Speakers: Gareth Leonard (REGENESIS) and Jonny Bergman (RGS Nordic)

Recording Available | In 1958, an explosion at a secret military storage facility in a remote part of Sweden resulted in more than 14,000m3 of fuel sweeping down the mountainside and contaminating the soil and groundwater of the surrounding forest. This, now derelict, site is scheduled for redevelopment to provide residential properties and local amenities including a school. RGS Nordic, a Swedish remediation specialist, has been commissioned with cleaning up the site. Regenesis and RGS Nordic have worked together to create an in situ remedial strategy to address free product and dissolved phase contamination in fractured bedrock, a boulder field and unconsolidated soils beneath the remains of the base and the forest beyond.

This project is an excellent example of the value of a step-by-step approach to remediation and demonstrates the ability of integrated in situ techniques to meet the challenges of variable contaminant concentrations, large scale and complicated situations including free product, a heterogenetic formation and difficult terrain, which would otherwise have relied on more expensive and disruptive traditional remediation methods. First broadcast: April 29, 2015