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ISSUE 16 2014 DEALING WITH CLIMATIC UNCERTAINTY Designing approaches for groundwater restoration PAGE 8 MUTAGENIC FIBRE-OPTICS LOW-ENERGY CLAN LABS CARCINOGENS How can we harness REMEDIATION Keeping the community How should Australia them for groundwater Nanotechnology for safe from illegal drug assess them? remediation? sustainable clean-up manufacturing Leading the science of contamination and its remediation. CRC CARE brings together industry, government, science and engineering to prevent, assess and clean up environmental contamination. Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment www.crccare.com EDITOR’S NOTE Welcome to Issue 16 of Remediation Australasia. In this issue we examine human exposure to carcinogens that can mutate DNA, and how the I hope you like the new appearance of the risks should be assessed – especially given that magazine, which is part of an overall update of there is evidence showing that exposure is more our branding at CRC CARE, designed to give the dangerous for children than for adults. Remediation organisation a fresh, vibrant feel. Australasia looks at the debate in Australia over whether ‘age-dependent adjustment factors’ should This year is shaping up as an important one for the be incorporated into guides for assessing these remediation industry in Australasia. Over recent years, cancer risks, as has occurred in the United States. there have been many calls for the industry to further improve its professional standards. As a result, The magazine explores how human-driven climate CRC CARE is leading an initiative to do just that. change might influence the way we prevent, manage and clean up contamination. For a start, As you know, assessing and remediating growing concern with climate change is driving contaminated sites is a complex and challenging the need for sustainable technologies with lower task. Planning, executing and managing a energy requirements. Issue 16 takes a look at one remediation project requires specialised skills promising technology – zero valent nano-scale and advanced knowledge. Globally, there is iron, generated from waste iron oxide, which can a growing realisation that only appropriately remediate of a broad range of recalcitrant metal qualified personnel should be allowed to perform working fluids. We also investigate the importance these tasks. Accordingly, a number of countries of strategies for preventing and remediating are developing certification schemes to provide groundwater contamination that take into account increased assurance for site owners, regulators and the predicted impacts of climate change, such as communities. sea level rise. Thus, in the late 2000s, CRC CARE began Other articles include a wrap-up of the background discussions with the Australian Contaminated Land and current status of a low-energy, in situ method Consultants Association (ACLCA) on the need for treating contaminated groundwater using for a certification scheme for site contamination titanium dioxide and fibre-optic cables, and a practitioners. Efforts to make this a reality are now look into the dirty world of illegal, clandestine drug well under way. The envisaged scheme aims to laboratories – ‘clanlabs’ – and what must be done provide improved outcomes for all stakeholders and to minimise the dangers they pose to nearby provide appropriate recognition for the profession, residents. the expertise of practitioners working in a complex environment, and the profession’s contribution to society. Prof Ravi Naidu The details of the scheme are being developed Managing Director, CRC CARE through stakeholder consultation by representatives Editor-in-chief, Remediation Australasia of the industry, ACLCA, regulators and CRC CARE, with the aim to launch in mid-2014. Keep an eye out for the next issue of Remediation Australasia, as well as www.crccare.com/products-and-services/ certification-scheme, for more information. Cover Story 08 CONTENTS Remediation Australasia is a Every Issue quarterly industry magazine produced by the Australian Remediation Industry Cluster (ARIC) for the Australian remediation industry. CIRCULation The publication is currently distributed to more 06 than 2,000 recipients throughout Australasia, reMEDIAtion free of charge. Brief summaries of contamination and remediation EDITORIAL AND PRODUCTION in the media Editor-in-chief: Ravi Naidu Editor: Adam Barclay Technical editor: Prashant Srivastava Production editor: Victoria Leitch 08 EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES From the fringe Adam Barclay, CRC CARE How does climate change influence the way we 08 8302 3925, [email protected] approach groundwater remediation? COVER PHOTO Wetland restoration is helping to combat sea level rise and seawater intrusion into developed 30 areas close to the shore. Research RoundUp Photo: Scott Warner ISSN 2201-1722 Articles which appear in Remediation Australasia may 33 be reproduced with written permission from ARIC and Training and events CRC CARE. Acknowledgement of the source of both the research and the story will be a requirement. This publication is provided for the purpose of disseminating information relating to scientific and technical matters. Participating organisations of ARIC and CRC CARE do not accept 34 liability for any loss and/or damage, Publications update including financial loss, resulting from the reliance upon any information, advice or recommendations contained in this publication. The contents of this publication should not necessarily be taken to represent the views of the participating organisations. Printed on Certified Carbon Neutral, FSC Mix Certified, 55% recycled (30% pre consumer, 25% post-consumer) paper. Features 12 Mutagenic carcinogens in Australia Should Australia introduce age-dependent adjustment factors? 16 Fibre-optics in groundwater remediation A low energy, in situ method for treating contaminated groundwater 19 Waste to energy: cutting costs and increasing revenue Biomethane potential testing with the AMPTS-II system (special advertising feature) 22 Low-energy remediation with nanotechnology Nano-scale iron from mining waste – a new approach to clean up 28 Keep calm and clean up Peace of mind for communities through clan lab remediation Remediation Australia Issue 16 2014 5 reMEDIAtion Your guide to environmental contamination and remediation issues in the media Algae for cleaning up Fukushima? they are not familiar with, as reported on The Voice Three years after an earthquake devastated Japan, of Russia website (bit.ly/1fVgLCz). Read the Journal radioactive contamination from the Fukushima of Plant Research article at bit.ly/1ek5xF6. nuclear power plant remains an issue in seawaters Meanwhile, a shortage of workers is slowing the around the site. A group of Japanese scientists are remediation works that are being undertaken in the offering a unique solution in phytoremediation. After north of Japan. Business Insider Australia reported that testing over 100 strains of algae, they have identified scouts are now looking around large cities to recruit a strain that can eliminate 90% of radioactive homeless people to undertake the manual work caesium. Despite these promising results, the owner (http://ow.ly/w3WAS). The workers, who are paid less of the Fukushima site – the Tokyo Electric Power than minimum wage, are often left in debt after Company – has been slow to react to the research. working as deductions for food, accommodation and State University of New York Professor Lee Newman laundry are taken from their pay. suspects this may be due to a fear of technology National waste reporting 2013 National Waste Reporting 2013 – an online resource providing data on waste management and resource recovery in Australia – has been released by Department of the Environment. The resource builds on the baseline data presented in the National Waste Report 2010, and draws on a range of commissioned research, published sources and information provided by Australian, state and territory governments, business, industry and community organisations. It includes data sets and time series analysis which can be used Plastic consequences for seabirds to make informed and timely decisions about A recent study out of the University of Tasmania waste management and resource recovery. It has shown that the impact of plastic pollution can be accessed at bit.ly/1iCdSrF. on marine birds goes deeper than a simple matter of ingestion. Marine birds are ingesting record amounts of plastic with the volume increasing over the period of a four-year study recently published in Environmental Pollution (bit.ly/1gLhM1Z). Beyond this, however, the study is the first to link the plastic to high levels of toxic metals in the birds. 6 Remediation Australia Issue 16 2014 Photo by Jean-Etienne Minh-Duy Poirrier, www.flickr.com/photos/jepoirrier/; creative commons https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/ Air pollution our largest risk Chinese pollution detectable from space The World Health Organization (bit.ly/1jpGo4S) has Despite the efforts of the Chinese government, just released 2012 figures linking 7 million deaths many regions of the country still experience regular per year (one-eighth of all deaths) to air pollution. episodes in which pollutants greatly exceed the This more than doubles previous estimates and guidelines set by the World Health Organisation, confirms air pollution as the world’s largest single reports the French National Centre for Scientific environmental health risk. The new data reveal a Research (CNRS)