High Resolution Characterization of Contaminated Sites

Following up on the successful 2012 local stakeholder event in Szprotawa, and the 2012 expert workshop on “Brownfield remediation in Poland – state of the art” and the 2013 evaluation and training event on "Integrated Planning and Assessment of Land Re-Use" both held in Zielona Góra, the project TIMBRE was glad to invite again to Poland to a Demonstration and Training Event

"High Resolution Characterization of Contaminated Sites".

The event was in Polish language with English translation. TIMBRE invited experts and representatives of institutions & companies interested or involved in the re-development of brownfields and former industrial sites to this demonstration and training event.

Especially, the event addressed investigation & remediation consultants and service providers as well as public authorities or academia in the broader region of Lubuskie Voivodeship, but also all international guests (English translation is provided) interested in assessing the state-of-the-art technologies and approaches for high resolution characterization of contaminated sites.

Participants in the event had the opportunity to directly assess different innovative investigation techniques in terms of their capabilities and cost efficiency and to gather a live experience related to the use of associated data within the complex brownfield regeneration framework.

The event took place on 17th and 18th of September 2013 at the Hotel "Chrobry", Ul. Jesionowa 3 Wiechlice, 67-300 Szprotawa - located near the TIMBRE project's case study model site Szprotawa JAR – former airbase.

A resume of the two workshop days

At day 1 Janusz Krupanek (IETU, Poland) started out with a presentation on the TIMBRE project and Mariusz Kalisz (IETU) continued with a presentation of the Szprotawa test site and its history. Mette Algreen Nielsen (DTU, Denmark), Marcel Stalder (SG, Switzerland) and Eugen Martak (Fugro Consult, Germany) followed presenting the state of art with regard to methods of tree coring, soil air sampling and different probe technologies. After a nice lunch at the hotel, the participants changed the venue to the hot spot area of the test site, where all the theoretically introduced technologies were demonstrated and where they were invited try to drill a tree core on their own. The day ended with a social dinner.

Day 2 started with presentations from Mette, Marcel, Janusz and Eugen on the results obtained by tree coring, soil air, soil and groundwater sampling and the different probe methods. After a short coffee break Manfred Kühne (GE, Germany) and Lauge Peter Westergaard (DTU) presented two remediation technologies.

The work shop had 25-30 participants and the TIMBRE project partners. Additionally to the presentations and field demonstrations, four posters were shown

“Soil and Groundwater Pollution by Kerosens, Szprotawa Airbase, Poland. Site characterization using soil-gas investigations”,
“Iterative Site Model Improvement based on Adaptive integrated Characterization Strategies and technologies as pre requisite for a Successful Design of Site remediation and redevelopment“,
“Phytoscreening and remediation; Low-cost, simple and green technologies” and
“Phytoscreening by tree coring; Used for Chlorinated solvents and heavy metals”

and leaflets about the methods were handed out. Also a questionnaire from Filip Alexandrescu (UFZ, Germany) were handed out and collected afterwards to help the project to further tailer the project's outcomes.

Background on the project and event

The timbre – Tailored Improvement of Brownfield Regeneration in Europe – project aims to support stakeholders and key-actors in over-coming existing barriers by developing and providing customised problem- and targetoriented
packages of technologies, approaches and management tools for brownfields’ re-use planning and remediation.

This event in Szprotawa aimed at introducing and demonstrating the state-of-the-art technologies and approaches for high resolution characterization of contaminated sites offered by timbre for the integrated site charactarisation – using the example case study model site Szprotawa JAR – former airbase.

Participants in the event have had the chance of surveying all associated investigation characteristics and building up individual experiences on interpretation and valorisation of information outcomes. There was opportunity to learn in the field about the Timbre tailored approach applied to Szprotawa site. Characterisation techniques to be demonstrated include: