Engineering Tools for Environmental Risk Management ─ Integrated Environmental Risk Management - Case Studies

The volume introduces contaminated land management cases, including planning, assessment, decision making, remediation and verification of the technology at sites representing contamination by organic and inorganic contaminants, and from point and diffuse sources. These case studies demonstrate the applicability and suitability of versatile engineering tools and their integrated application in order to manage the environment in a holistic way.
Two of the four case study sites are contaminated by organic, two others by inorganic pollutants. The sites contaminated by organic pollutants are relatively small and delineated ones, the others are diffusely contaminated catchments.
An oil spill occurred at a transformer station of a former industrial facility in the middle of the People’s Park, a Budapest, Hungary recreation area. Transformer oil contamination was identified (as non-polychlorinated biphenyls) and found both in the saturated and unsaturated soil zones. It was moderately biodegradable due to low mobility and bioavailability. The site underwent a complex assessment, which was followed by microcosm testing, and, finally, a combined technology — cyclodextrin enhanced flushing, bioventing and ex situ water treatment — was designed and implemented. The technology was verified using technology monitoring and site monitoring data.
The site of a former metal processing plant was contaminated by a mixture of chlorinated solvents, mainly in the saturated soil zone and the groundwater, down to the surface of the impermeable layer. A combination of processes and technologies was applied: mobilization by solubilization, treatment with additives via wells, directed groundwater flow to reach the entire area,in situ enhanced biodegradation and ex situ physico-chemical water treatment. A number of laboratory microcosms preceded the design of the field experiments. The monitoring used the integrated physico-chemical, biological and toxicological methods. Evaluation and verification of the technology were also introduced.
The contaminations by inorganic pollutants, both of mining origin, appeared at a catchment scale.
The area of a former zinc and lead mine overlaps with a natural recreational area and a village downstream with gardens and agricultural land. Pollution from several point sources caused a typical diffuse pollution. Mapping and planning risk reduction was supported by a GIS-based risk assessment. Several microcosms and field plots were tested to determine the parameters and ranges of the GIS-based transport model and the best remedial technology option. Validation was done after the complex remediation and rehabilitation of the former mining site. Risk reduction and rehabilitation included waste disposal and isolation as well as the remediation of the soils in the remaining contaminated subareas and smaller sites by the combination of chemical and phytostabilization.

Katalin Gruiz is Associate Professor at Budapest University of Technlogy, Budapest, Hungary.
She graduated in chemical engineering at Budapest University of Technology and Economics in 1975, received her doctorate in bioengineering and her Ph.D. in environmental engineering. Her main fields of activities are: teaching, consulting, research and development of engineering tools for risk-based environmental management, development and use of innovative technologies such as special environmental toxicity assays, integrated monitoring methods, biological and ecological remediation technologies for soils and waters, both for regulatory and engineering purposes. Prof. Gruiz has published 35 papers, 25 book chapters, more than hundred conference papers, edited 6 books and a special journal edition. She has coordinated a number of Hungarian research projects and participated in European ones. Gruiz is a member of the REACH Risk Assessment Committee of the European Chemicals Agency. She is a full time associate professor at Budapest University of Technology and Economics and heads the research group of Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology.

Tamas Meggyes is Research Coordinator in Berlin, Germany.
He is specialising in research and book projects in environmental engineering. His work focuses on fluid mechanics, hydraulic transport of solids, jet devices, landfill engineering, groundwater remediation, tailings facilities and risk-based environmental management. He contributed to and organised several international conferences and national and European integrated research projects in Hungary, Germany, United Kingdom and USA. Tamas Meggyes was Europe editor of the Land Contamination and Reclamation journal in the UK and a reviewer of several environmental journals. He was invited by the EU as an expert evaluator to assess research applications and by Samarco Mining Company, Brazil, as a tailings management expert. In 2007, he was named Visiting Professor of Built Environment Sustainability at the University of Wolverhampton, UK. He has published 130 papers including eleven books and holds a doctor’s title in fluid mechanics and a Ph.D. degree in landfill engineering from Miskolc University, Hungary.

Eva Fenyvesi is senior scientist and founding member of CycloLab Cyclodextrin Research and Development Ltd, Budapest, Hungary.
She graduated as a chemist and received her PhD in chemical technology at Eotvos University of Natural Sciences, Budapest. She is experienced in the preparation and application of cyclodextrin polymers, in environmental application of cyclodextrins and in gas chromatography. She participated in several national and international research projects, in the development of various environmental technologies applying cyclodextrins. She is author or co-author of over 50 scientific papers, 3 chapters in monographs, over 50 conference presentations and 14 patents. She is an editor of the Cyclodextrin News, the monthly periodical on cyclodextrins.