soil remediation and soil sealing...

From industrial and coal mining area to new economic uses and cultural renaissance: the role of soil remediation in the Ruhr area

Prof. Dr. Wilhelm König,

Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Agriculture, Conser-vation and Consumer Affairs, North-Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Soil remediation and soil sealing conference

10./11. May 2012 in Brussels

Preliminary remarks North Rhine Westfalia is a region with high population and industry

density (34.000 km2, 18 million inhabitants) Long history of mining industry

- anthracite coal: cocing plants, dumps, ground subsidiences- brown coal in open-cast mining: great land consumption - ore mining: contamination with heavy metals

Many damages of the 2. world war

Since more than 30 years in North Rhine Westfalia contaminated sites are covered and measured,

There are great efforts for remediation Since 5 years we have a new priority for reduction of greenfield

consumption by brownfield redevelopment

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10.000

20.000

30.000

40.000

50.000

60.000

70.000

80.000

1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 2000 2001 2004 2006 2008 2010

█ Altablagerungen

█ Altstandorte

State of identification of po-tentially contaminated sites

Land fill sitesindustrial sites

Potentially contaminated sites in the Northern Ruhr Area

Situation of processing contaminated sites in North Rhine Westfalia

2006 2010

Identificated sites 55.764 75.370

therefrom land fill sites 21.313 30.493

therefrom industrial sites 34.451 44.877

Risk asessment finished 14.540 17.969Remediation finished 5.319 6.158

but about 36 % of the potentially contaminated sites have no risk assessment!

Who is responseble for soil remediation?(§ 4 Soil protection act)1.Polluter - when he isn‘t capable

2.Ground owner - when he isn‘t capable or the remediation is

more expensive than the value of the property

3.Public authorities - but they can get a compensation for the

additional value of remediation, if the site will be selled

How is the financing reality?

⅓ of cases pay the polluters or ground owners

⅓ of cases pay new investors

⅓ of cases have to pay the public authorities

funding program for „contaminated sites“ of the NRW-Ministry for Environment (incl. co-financing by EU EFRE): ca. 380 Mio. €

ecologic program for the Emscher-Lippe-Raum (ÖPEL): ca. 75 Mio. € Grundstücksfond NRW (neu: Urban NRW): ca. 300 Mio. € Altlastensanierungsverband NRW (AAV): ca. 140 Mio. €

totally are used nearly 1 Billion € of funding programmes in NRWfor remediation of contaminated sites!

additionally are the parts of local authorities, polluters, ground owners and investors

Funding of local authorities in North Rhine Westpha-lia for remediation of contaminated sites since 1983

- beginning in 1989 at IBA Emscher Park -Since 1991 are more than 450 projects realised

Co-financing by EU-EFRE

Ecologic Program forEmscher Lippe (ÖPEL)

Funding for structural development in the Emscher-Region

The Ruhr Area: European Capital of Culture 2010Cultural highligth: cole mining plant „Zollverein“, Essen

Landscape park Duisburg North

Integration of a former steel plant: Conservation as cultural memorial

Covering of a coal tar lake

Landscape park Duisburg North

smelting plant

Land fill site

Developing a contaminated site of a zinc smelting plant and a land fill site to a green corridor at the rhine

Duisburg: green space„Biegerhof West“

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Duisburg: green space „Biegerhof West“

The recultivated land fill site

Duisburg: green space„Biegerhof West“

The building is now the „Century hall"

Integrated urban development „Bochum Center West“

Integrated urban development „Bochum Center West“

Brownfield remediation - Westpark

A former brickworks …

… is now an area of recreation

Phoenix in Dortmund: Blast furnace and steel plant

Demolition of industrial buildings


Modelling of the sea (Dez. 2009)


Area of recreation – near the city (Okt. 2011)


A former steel work site with an area of about 100 ha is now …

… the “new middle Oberhausen”

A Fertilizer factory with damages in the 2. world war

Deletion of warfare materials before remediation

A former coal mine “Graf Bismarck” with a harbour

… the plan for the future

Some projects we inspected with an EU Delegation

Conclusions for a European soil directive Soil remediation in an industrial area needs a long time, it‘s a continuos task Contaminated sites are not only in risk areas, also in rural areras they could

be found a „risc area approach“ is not the rigth way!

Important is an obligation to report indications for soil contamination by everyone

Necessary is a stepwize procedere: indications historical research priorities risk assessment new proirities remediation strategy

We need consistant principles for risc asessment the experiences of the German soil protection act should be considered

Thanks for Your Attention

For assistance with examples for soil remediation projects I would like to thank: Mrs. Ingrid Rudolph, MKULNV, Mrs. Sabine Schidlowski-Boos, AAV and Mr. Wolf-Dietrich Bertges, LANUV

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