News
- Category: News
This report published by the European Commission delves into the intricate interplay between drivers, pressures and impacts on soil in the 32 Member States of the European Environment Agency (EEA), along with six cooperating countries from the West Balkans, Ukraine and UK, shedding light on the multifaceted challenges facing soil conservation efforts.
- Category: News
The European Soil Data Centre (ESDAC) has the ambition to be the single reference point for and to host all relevant soil data and information at European level.
Most of the offered data are at European scale, while, when possible, links to national or global datasets are provided.
Datasets are publicly available (usually after registration) and are divided into five broad categories:
- The European Soil Database (ESDB), datasets that have been derived with the help of the ESDB and general European datasets that contain soil properties.
- Data that are related to soil threats (erosion, soil organic carbon, landslides, compaction, salinization, soil biodiversity, contaminated sites, soil sealing, etc.)
- Data related to soil functions
- Soil point data (LUCAS, SPADE, etc)
- Data that stem from soil projects.
https://esdac.jrc.ec.europa.eu/resource-type/datasets-list
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Class actions and multidistrict litigation (MDL) concerning perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have led to massive settlements by chemical companies that have totaled in the billions of dollars, and that has only been to mitigate the damages that per and polyfluoroalkyl substances can cause. We are only beginning to see individual and consolidated lawsuits filed by victims against PFAS manufacturers who have actually suffered concrete harm from being exposed to these toxic PFAS chemicals.
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Regulation (EU) 2019/1021 on persistent organic pollutants implements the EU’s international commitments under the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants (chemical substances). Following a decision to add UV-328 to the Convention, this initiative amends Annex I to the Regulation to include UV-328 as a substance subject to certain restrictions.
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Find out more information at ec.europa.eu/
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EPA, through its RE-Powering America's Land Initiative, maintains a list of economic and environmental benefits that have been reported by communities and developers associated with renewable energy projects on contaminated lands. Compiled from publicly available information, the latest benefits matrix offers detailed insights into how benefits such as lease and tax revenues, reduced electricity costs, job creation, and lower greenhouse gas emissions have been realised across different projects.
The locations of completed projects with their associated benefits can be explored using the Benefits Mapper.
Read the full article on epa.gov
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The EU Soil Monitoring Law, designed to bolster the key role of soil in maintaining Europe's biodiversity and climate resilience, has been approved by MEPs, but only after the requirements it would place on national governments were significantly lightened.
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This guidance was released by the Chinese government in 2023.
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- Online version (Chinese) Â
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A new consultation seeks to pave the way for residential development on brownfield land (commonly referred to as ‘previously developed land’) in order to meet housing delivery targets across the country.
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The new law sets a target for the EU to restore at least 20% of the EU’s land and sea areas by 2030 and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050.
The EU nature restoration law will restore degraded ecosystems in all member states and help achieve the EU’s climate and biodiversity objectives, as well as enhancing food security.
To reach the overall EU targets, member states must restore at least 30% of habitats covered by the new law (from forests, grasslands and wetlands to rivers, lakes and coral beds) from a poor to a good condition by 2030, increasing to 60% by 2040, and 90% by 2050.
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At the end of November 2023 the Attorney General and the Governor of Ohio announced a US$110M settlement (currently pending court approval) with Du Pont De Nemours and Co. and The Chemours Company in response to a complaint alleging that during the course of six decades, Dupont continued to release vast quantities of perfluorooctanoic acid, known as PFOA or C8, in the groundwater, drinking water, soil, and air surrounding its plant even after it knew that PFOA was toxic to humans and the environment.
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Concawe has published a new report called Case Studies and Analysis of Sustainable Remediation Techniques and Technologies.Â
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. Concawe commissioned CL:AIRE to a) gather, prepare and publish ten European case studies that demonstrate sustainable remediation techniques and technologies and b) provide an analysis of the case studies to identify key success factors. A cross-comparison analysis of the ten case studies has been carried out, seeking to help practitioners compare these case studies to their own projects. The cross-comparison analysis focused on the following attributes: site location and type of site (former use); saturated / unsaturated zone impact; targeted contaminants; risk drivers; envisaged land use; objectives for sustainability assessment; remediation options compared; stakeholder engagement; boundary conditions; scope (environmental, economic, social); key constraints / opportunities; and assessment type (qualitative, semi-quantitative etc). Based on this analysis and recently published guidance, a practical approach for deploying sustainable remediation on operational sites has been proposed. Working with a risk-based conceptual site model, effective engagement with stakeholders and a sound understanding of sustainable remediation practices are seen as key success factors from these case studies.Â
The report was prepared by Rob Sweeney and Nicola Harries, CL:AIRE and Paul Bardos, r3 Environmental Technology Ltd.
The report is available to download on the Concawe website at www.concawe.eu and ten CL:AIRE Concawe Case Study Bulletins are available to download individually at www.claire.co.uk/concawe.
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Behind some of the current political headline-grabbing which signals that a general election may not be too far away, Michael Gove, the Secretary of State forÂ
Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, recently provided further detail on a key pillar of the government’s long-term housing plan, revealing a strategyÂ
of prioritising urban regeneration.Â
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In his speech, he confirmed that the government will be “unequivocally, unapologetically and intensively concentrating our biggest efforts in the heartsÂ
of our citiesâ€.Â
For more detail see: https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=16b55e5d-6c57-4115-9d37-a24cb0334b66
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r3 is a partner in a new initiative being co-ordinated by the Geological Survey of Finland GTK, which is a new research and innovation project related to the topic, ISLANDR ‒ Information-based Strategies for Land Remediation. The project aims to develop methods for identifying the sources of soil contamination and assessing the risks they cause.
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While some state and federal agencies and other entities have guidance documents regarding soil background, there is not one comprehensive and widely accepted guidance document that summarizes the state of the science on this topic. This ITRC guidance document is intended to fill the gap by providing a comprehensive defensible framework for establishing and using soil background in risk assessments. It focuses on the process of establishing defensible background concentrations of naturally occurring or anthropogenic ambient chemicals to be used for risk assessment at contaminated sites.Â
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Now available:
2019 Law of the People’s Republic of China on Prevention and Control of Soil Contamination http://english.mee.gov.cn/Resources/laws/environmental_laws/202011/t20201113_807786.shtml
2016 Soil Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan http://english.mee.gov.cn/Resources/Plans/Plans/201712/P020171213578786221890.pdf
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The third session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-3) adopted a resolution requesting member States and relevant UN bodies to explore ways to address soil pollution in a more integrated manner within the global environmental, food security and agriculture, development and health agendas, “especially through preventive approaches and risk management using available science.†A report by UNEP to be presented to UNEA-4 details some follow-up activities taken in the intersessional period to promote such integrated actions.
See https://sdg.iisd.org/news/unep-outlines-integrated-actions-to-tackle-soil-pollution-in-preparation-for-unea-4/ and https://papersmart.unon.org/resolution/uploads/k1800204.english.pdf
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Intervention thresholds set for agricultural and development land
See https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=8009e1bc-788c-4389-9993-71b84cb72dd8
Detailed information (in Chinese) can be found at: http://www.mep.gov.cn/gkml/sthjbgw/sthjbgg/201807/t20180703_445969.htm
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Detailed advice on Japanese Knotweed management written by a UK professional orgaisation in response to a request from the regulator. https://www.localgov.co.uk/Japanese-knotweed-New-advice-to-tackle-a-growing-problem/44674