Guidance on the Assessment and Monitoring of Natural Attenuation of Contaminants in Groundwater

In April 2024, CL:AIRE published Guidance on the Assessment and Monitoring of Natural Attenuation of Contaminants in Groundwater.

Monitored natural attenuation (MNA) can be a sustainable risk management strategy for a wide range of groundwater contaminants, where environmental data are collected and assessed that demonstrate natural attenuation will protect receptors from pollution or harm. Natural attenuation refers to the combination of physical, chemical and biological processes that act, without human intervention, to reduce contaminant concentrations, flux or toxicity.

The Environment Agency originally published technical guidance for MNA in 2000 in its R&D Publication 95. Since then, significant scientific advances have been made in understanding contaminant behaviour and reactive transport in the subsurface, alongside ongoing developments in site characterisation, monitoring and predictive modelling approaches and technologies, that are captured in this updated guidance.

CL:AIRE would like to gratefully acknowledge the Environment Agency for its seed funding for this project and the individuals of the working group for their time in authoring sections along with their technical discussions and review of the guidance. The final document has kindly been reviewed and supported by the Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales, Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA), an agency within the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA). CL:AIRE would also like to thank its Technology and Research Group for their peer review of the document prior to publication.

Working Group
George Flower – Arcadis
Thomas Grosjean – BP
Nicola Harries – CL:AIRE
Kirsten Johnstone – Environment Agency
Ian Jones – Natural Resources Wales
Matt Llewhellin – Natural Resources Wales
Brian McVeigh – formerly Northern Ireland Environment Agency
James Rayner – Geosyntec
Matt Riding – WSP
Isla Smail – Scottish Environment Protection Agency
Jonathan Smith – Shell
Rob Sweeney – CL:AIRE
Alan Thomas – ERM
Russell Thomas – WSP
Gary Wealthall – Geosyntec (retired)

The MNA guidance document can be downloaded for free at claire.co.uk/mna (PDF 9MB).

Concawe publishes sustainable remediation report and ten case studies

Concawe has published a new report called Case Studies and Analysis of Sustainable Remediation Techniques and Technologies. 

The report aims to fill in a recognised gap in the provision of detailed case studies documenting the practical implementation of sustainable remediation, and facilitate further refinement of guidance.

Student Contest in ICEM 2023 - International Conference on Environmental Remediation and Radioactive Waste Management

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is supporting the ICEM 2023 International Conference on Environmental Remediation and Radioactive Waste Management to be held at the International Conference Centre Stuttgart, Germany, 3-6 October 2023.

The American Society for Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the IAEA are committed to stimulate and broaden the perspectives of students in areas related to nuclear energy. Therefore, ASME, in support with IAEA are excited to bring a student competition to ICEM 2023.

Industry views wanted on piling on land affected by contamination

CL:AIRE is pleased to be collaborating with The Environmental Protection Group Ltd and a cross-industry Technical Working Group, to update the Environment Agency guidance "Piling and Penetrative Ground Improvement Methods on Land Affected by Contamination". To help set the scope of this update, CL:AIRE is seeking feedback from industry around what works well about the current document and what needs to be improved. If you are familiar with the current guidance and undertake, review, or procure foundation works risk assessments, then we want to hear from you! 

Please click the following link for more information and to access the piling questionnaire https://forms.office.com/e/XKt0fxAkXk. We would like your comments by the end of 16 June 2023.