Remediation Concepts
If a contaminated site has adverse effects on groundwater, air or soil, it must be remediated.
In more complex cases, the objectives and urgency of remediation are first clarified in a detailed investigation and further basics are developed in a remediation investigation. In a remediation project, various options are then examined and compared in terms of effectiveness and costs.
Each contaminated site has its own particularities. Finding the right remediation solution is a task for experts that requires a great deal of expertise and experience.
- If there is a concrete threat to the groundwater, the most urgent measure is to secure the groundwater. For subsequent remediation, groundwater purification is often installed (pump and treat), or the biological degradation of the pollutants is supported by certain substances (Enhanced Natural Attenuation).
- If the soil above old landfills is affected, a new recultivation layer must be created.
- Particularly in connection with construction projects, complete or partial decontamination is often carried out, i.e. excavation of the polluted zones for disposal or external treatment.
- The bullet traps of old shooting ranges are also cases of remediation: Here, the main aim is to clearly demarcate the zone where heavy lead contamination occurs in order to decontaminate it later in a targeted manner.
Use of groundwater models for remediation
Our specialty is the planning, optimisation and monitoring of groundwater protection and remediation projects with the support of groundwater models. Using pollutant analyses, supplementary historical and hydrogeological investigations and precise groundwater transport simulations, we locate the source of groundwater contamination and prepare forecasts for the spread of pollutants. The monitoring is supplemented by model simulations and limited to what is necessary. In this way, our remediation solutions are optimally adapted to local conditions and, of course, cost-efficient.
Reference projects
Securing the Bürrig / Dhünnaue landfill
For the landfill Bürrig / Dhünnaue, one of the major old landfill sites in North Rhine-Westphalia, Simultec AG together with the technical department of Bayer AG developed the groundwater protection concept as well as the proof of effectiveness by means of groundwater model simulations and measurements and represented and defended it towards the authorities. Since then we have been supporting the client in the periodic review of the effectiveness of the measures.
Client: Bayer AG
Period: 1993 - today
Remediation of the Schochen shooting range
The target area of the shooting range is located on a natural slope on the right side of the Töss. Special challenges during the rehabilitation were posed by the frailty to landslides of this slope and the difficult access. Furthermore, due to the influence of water coming off the slopes, a considerable spread and deep displacement of lead and antimony had already taken place, so that the remediation had to be extended beyond the actual bullet trap area.
Thanks to careful investigation and planning, both the schedule and the budget could be adhered to despite these uncertainties.
Client: Community of Wila
Period: 2014 - 2016
Gartenareal Hard: City gardens on a new recultivation layer
In a family garden area in the middle of the city of Zurich, which was built in the 1930s over a filled gravel pit, the soil proved to be heavily contaminated with pollutants. Partial decontamination was chosen as the remediation option, followed by the construction of a new professional landfill cover with a recultivation layer. This is now being used again as a neighbourhood garden.
The Simultec AG has carried out all investigations as an expert for contaminated sites, planned the remediation as a project engineer and took over the site management during the execution together with a landscape architect.
Client: City of Zurich
Period: 2010 - 2013