Bioremediation in The Netherlands and state of the art of the NICOLE network

Bioremediation in The Netherlands and state of the art of the NICOLE network

H.J. van Veen

TNO Institute of Environmental Sciences, Energy Research and Process Innovation

PO Box 342

7300 AH Apeldoorn

The Netherlands

1. Bioremediation in The Netherlands

Until 1997 the application of bioremediation of contaminated land in The Netherlands was limited to some landfarming facilitites for excavated soil.

There have been two initiatives to accelerate the application of bioremediation:

· The Netherlands research programme in-situ bioremediation (NOBIS)

· The change in the national policy

NOBIS

The objective of NOBIS is to develop, evaluate and demonstrate innovative strategies, methods and techniques which will effectively help to control in-situ remediation by means of biotechnology (biorestoration).

With a large scale application of the attained results a significant reduction in the costs of the soil clean-up operation will have to be achieved. A threatening stagnation in the solution of the soil clean-up problem can thus be counteracted. NOBIS will also help to improve the export position of The Netherlands in the field of knowledge-based soil clean-up products and services.

The research programme is supported by the government with 13 million USD out of the investment fund to improve the infrastructure for the development and exchange of know-how. An additional 7 million USD is expected to be contributed from the private sector. The programme runs until 1999.

There are about 50 ongoing and finished projects.

National policy

Recently the Dutch government presented a document containing the new policy on soil remediation to Parliament. The new approach abandons the strict requirement for contamination to be removed to the maximum extent, and instead permits clean-up on the basis of suitability for use. At the same time government proposed other changes to soil protection legislation, including greater devolution of responsibility for clean-up to local authorities and the creation of more stimulating instruments.

According to the present estimates applying the multifunctionality approach to the estimated 110,000 seriously contaminated sites would have incurred costs of around 50 billion USD. In The Netherlands we are now spending about 0.5 billion USD p.a., which equals the sum that was initially thought to be sufficient to resolve the entire problem. But at this speed it would take about 100 years to end the operation.

In the meantime soil contamination would hamper construction and redevelopment essential to economic and social development and dispersal of contaminants in the groundwater would keep on making the problem even bigger.

The new policy on remediation of contaminated soil is based on a twofold strategy of reducing the cost of remediation and of integrating soil remediation with economic and social development.

The cost can be reduced by orienting remediation operations to a site's designated use, to make more sites suitable for use in a shorter period.

2. NICOLE

NICOLE is an acronym of a Network for Industrially Contaminated land in Europe. The aims are:

· To provide a European network for the dissemination and exchange of scientific and technological knowledge and ideas relating to all aspects of contaminated land (soil and groundwater) arising from industrial activities;

· To promote co-ordinated, multidisciplinary collaborative research that will enable European manufacturing and processing industry to efficiently and cost-effectively identify, assess and manage contaminated sites;

· To inform planners of National and European research programmes of priorities for future research and to improve the synergy and co-ordination of research being carried out in EU programmes and other initiatives a.. European and National levels.

Funding

NICOLE is dual funded through the EC R&D Programme Environment & Climate and participant subscriptions. Problem owning companies, technology developers, service providers and trade associations will pay a fee of 10,000 ECU for a 3 year membership. Companies from East European countries may pay only 5,000 ECU. Academic researchers and research funding bodies may participate without a subscription cost.

Just now there are about 25 industrial company, 4 service providers, 15 research planning/funding organisations and 77 research organisations/universities registered as member of NICOLE.