Enabling land remediation in Scotland

Mason Evans is a geo-environmental consultancy in Scotland that provides high quality, practical and technically robust solutions to its clients across the UK.

They were working with a range of house builders and were tasked with finding out whether the land that had been identified for development, was safe to build on. They needed to find out what the land was used for previously to try and determine contamination levels and propose remediation solutions.

Land is legally defined as ‘contaminated land’ where substances are causing or could cause:

• Significant harm to people, property or protected species
• Significant pollution of surface waters (for example lakes and rivers) or groundwater
• Harm to people as a result of radioactivity

Contaminated land may previously have been used as a:

• Mine
• Refinery
• Landfill
• Factory
• Steel Mill

SUEZ’s environmental laboratory conducted a series of tests on the soil to determine contamination levels. Among other contaminants, we tested for:

• Toxic or phytotoxic metals such as copper and zinc
• Polyaromatic hydrocarbons
• Volatile Organic Compounds
• Toxic chemicals such as cyanide

All of the contaminants tested for would cause significant harm to those living in the new houses if found and no action was taken before building.

Once the soil samples had been taken from the site, our SUEZ drivers collected the samples as part of our in-house courier service, helping to ensure a fast and efficient turnaround of results for Mason Evans.

The detailed report, from our UKAS accredited laboratory, outlined exactly which compounds had been found and the quantity, providing all the analytical data for Mason Evans to advise their customer on whether the site was right and safe for development. They also experienced:

• Confidence in the results by using a UKAS accredited laboratory
• Enhanced technical support
• Bespoke reporting, such as UKWIR and WAC
• A fast and efficient logistics solution that maintained the integrity of the samples taken