Soil remediation and rehabilitation of brownfields to give them a second chance

Since the early 2000s, brownfield sites have gradually become a central concern for cities and regional authorities, which want to reinvent the urban planning, take into consideration polluted soils and social sciences to reinstate these neglected spaces. Frequently located in urban or peri-urban environments and varying in size, these areas correspond to a range of initial activities: former fields swallowed up by the city's urban spread, former residential, industrial or tertiary areas… 

Bearing witness to the processes of renewal or de-urbanisation of cities and regions, brownfield sites are intimately connected to urban evolution. 

These sites may be contaminated and present  a risk to human health and/or the environment. Generally, with an industrial origin, sources of soil contamination result from former practices, handling or transport accidents, inadequate waste and effluent storage, failure to properly confine toxic or hazardous products or atmospheric fallout.

At the heart of environmental and societal issues, the subject is closely monitored by the French government. In 2007, a national methodology was established to manage contaminated sites and soils in order to control pollution by improving environmental quality and eliminating concentrations of pollution and their impacts, guaranteeing that sites would be compatible with their uses and their environment. 

Preventing future pollutions, ensuring the safety of newly discovered sites, investigating, monitoring and controlling the impacts, treating and rehabilitating sites based on their use and then making this use durable, preserving memories and involving all stakeholders: our teams respond to all these priorities. 

Asbestos removal, deconstruction, demolition and decontamination… our specialist teams provide assistance to the project client to manage all your pollution problems. Constitution of financial guarantees, shutdown of activities, construction or development projects at a site, whether it is polluted or not, environmental monitoring: we contribute to all the stages in your project's life cycle... 

• Soil contamination studies to define and quantify the pollution management measures required,
  
• Preparation of shutdown documentation, safety procedure and then rehabilitation of the site to limit the risk to public health and the environment,
  
• Management of excavated soils during development projects,
  
• Qualifying and quantifying the impacts of incidents and accidents and assisting operators of facilities requiring environmental protection (ICPEs) with their declaration and the preparation of their safety/decontamination strategy.
  

A response adjusted to the needs of industrial companies…

… or development and construction projects

 

Our expert hydrogeologists can offer a perfect understanding of complex hydrogeological systems, specify groundwater drawdown operations, model the migration of pollutants in groundwater, design passive hydraulic barriers to confine the source of the pollution or active barriers to intercept contaminated water and treat it before discharge.

Modélisation hydrodynamique et hydrodispersion via les logiciels Feflow et Modflow.

Asbestos removal, deconstruction, demolition, decontamination… Our SS3-authorised teams (asbestos risk prevention authorisation, subsection 3) carry out:

• Dismantling following a shutdown of activity,
• Asbestos removal and partial or complete deconstruction of production units,
• Deconstruction following an incident or industrial accident,
  
• Superstructure and infrastructure demolition.
  
  

Your projects are then made secure, with full control over any contingencies or deviations. Starting from the study phase, we take residual risks (chemical, electrical etc.) into account. Our SS3-authorised staff issue a critical opinion on the asbestos technical report, analyse the report on product, equipment and material waste to optimise reuse and recovery, clarify the process (preliminary stripping, asbestos removal, stripping, controlled demolition etc.) and propose working methodologies suited to the project and its environment, taking account of structural separations, neighbouring structures and the management of disruption.

For over 10 years, SUEZ Consulting's teams have been given a second chance to brownfields site with handling dismantling and decontamination operations. 

 On behalf of the Sud Nivernais municipal grouping, our teams are responsible for:

• Assessing soil pollution, groundwater and soil gases, with over 40 samplings
• Producing the associated management plans, including analysing sanitary risks, defining the methodology for the decontamination work and cost estimation 
  
• Site conversion for tertiary and industrial use, with a space for craft businesses and technical facilities for the grouping of municipal authorities.
  
• Partial conservation of the buildings

The SRD site is being dismantled and the groundwater drainage system has to be closed. The purpose of the study is to describe the consequences of the drainage system shutdown and suggest any corrective measures that may become necessary.

The work assigned to SUEZ Consulting is the following:

• Preparation of a hydrodynamic and hydro-dispersive model of groundwater flow using Visual Modflow
  
• Simulating the drainage system shutdown: calculating the new pressures and associated drawdowns under high and average water conditions
  
• Sizing and proposing a hydraulic barrier to trap pollution within the site limits.

As part of the redevelopment of the La Rochelle harbour (GPMLR), various assignments have been undertaken to decontaminate potentially polluted areas. Prividing new available areas  for an industrial use  is one of the priorities of the harbour board.

The project management assignments handled by SUEZ Consulting's teams include the diagnostic phase,the soil remediation works conception and follow-up.

The teams' expertise in contaminated sites and soils allow to compare and operate the best technical and economic terms to treat the contaminated soils in full compliance with environmental rules.