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“There are still many greenfield sites that pass the planning approval system – theoretically, there should be more brownfield sites that pass this stage” Andrew Mackenzie, Managing Director, ERS Remediation Interview: John Bynorth ANDREW Mackenzie entered the land remediation business in the 1990s just as the potential of Scotland’s post- industrial derelict land legacy was beginning to emerge.

Mr Mackenzie joined Environmental Reclamation Services Ltd (ERS) after the 1990 Environmental Protection Act created the Contaminated Land Regime (Part IIA) in the UK.

But it would take another decade before the legislation’s potential for the land remediation industry was unlocked after the then Scottish Executive introduced guidance in 2003 for dealing with contaminated land.

ERS was initially established in 1995 as a Scottish company by the Tulloch family who had recently sold Tulloch Construction Ltd, but ERS soon became US owned. Mr Mackenzie was involved in a management buyout of the Bishopbriggs-based company, which also has offices in Edinburgh, Inverness and Jersey, in 2003. In 2016 ERS became 100% employee owned which gives its 34 staff influence in the company’s decision making through an employee appointed trust.

He said: “Contaminated land remediation was driven by the 1990 Environmental Protection Act. There was talk about creating contaminated land registers at that point, but it all fizzled out and there was concern that property blight would be created.

“It wasn’t until 2003 that the Scottish Executive guidance was put in place to make it clear when a site needed to be cleaned up, and what standard needed to be achieved.”

ERS’s annual turnover rose from £300,000 in 2002 to £3.5 million in 2009 with major projects completed ranging from involvement in the M74 extension in Glasgow in 2008 to the decade-long work on the Nigg oil fabrication yard near Mr Mackenzie’s home town of Tain in the Highlands, which began in 2003.

A bitumen refinery, supermarket distribution centres, power stations, chemical works, printers and numerous petrol stations, north and south of the border, brought work to ERS as the company grew in skills and experience.

In the run up to the many sites in the East End of Glasgow were remediated for new venues such as the Emirates Arena and Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome and new accommodation and hotels . ERS played their part, treating thousands of tonnes of hydrocarbon contaminated soils to minimise landfill costs.

Among ERS’s current contracts are the investigation and remediation of a number of landfill sites, oil terminals, scrap yards and factories including water treatment for part of the vast former Ford site in Dagenham, Essex. These sites are being re-developed for housing, schools, universities and waste recycling facilities.

Mr Mackenzie, pictured with the ERS team of directors JP Renaud, Jacqui Smith, Iain Mackay and Phil Amos, who is the employee director on the Trust, said: “A lot of our orders come from private developers because so much of the market is development led. There is a limited amount of legislatively-driven remediation with the majority driven by development.”

He said that he would like to see far more brownfield sites being made available for development.

Mr Mackenzie is hoping that in this regard the work of the Vacant and Derelict Land Task Force established through the Scottish Land Commission will start to bear fruit. He added: “There are still so many greenfield sites that seem to pass the approval system. Theoretically, we should be seeing more brownfield sites coming through…”

He described the Task Force as a ‘very exciting initiative which could stimulate the market’ and was pleased to see its leadership are reaching out to engage with the private sector.

However, Andrew qualified: “It must be remembered that derelict and vacant land isn’t necessarily contaminated. Contamination will be the key problem in very few sites, but it can be the key to unlocking their potential. There are a number of contaminated land sites where the lack of an affordable solution is blocking development, but it is only a small percentage of the total vacant or derelict land.”

Mr Mackenzie does not claim to have all the answers as to how to unlock the potential of vacant land sites which have been dormant for years or even decades. He pointed to the 376 hectares on which the former Ravenscraig steel-works, pictured left, once stood as an example.

In June 2019, North Council passed a masterplan for the site that will, it is hoped, eventually see homes constructed for 12,000 people.

He added: “Ravenscraig is, I believe, the largest piece of derelict land in Scotland and the infrastructure that’s in the process of being approved and road schemes which are costing £200 million will be key to unlocking its potential.”

But how can the market to remediate land be stimulated by legislation? Andrew said: “It’s a difficult balance for the regulators.

Some companies have called for higher rates of tax on landfilling contaminated soil to stimulate the remediation market, but you can’t hamstring development.

“Economic development is more important. SEPA brought in a lot of changes between 2000 and 2010 that brought much needed clarity to the market. As a company we just get on with the rules we are given…”

Members of the Environmental Industries Commission (EIC), which aims to ensure that legislation does not hamper the sector, held a meeting with industry representatives, including ERS, earlier this year in Scotland.

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Mr Mackenzie added: “They talked about the problems the sector faces south of the Border. We are better off up here, and have contaminated land officers in local authorities who are technically very good, but perhaps don’t have the financial support that they need and feel very stretched.”

He said Scottish local authorities had strived to prioritise land remediation and despite the financial pressures they are under had retained “good quality staff (working) in contaminated land.”

Mr Mackenzie also said that SEPA were stretched when it comes to resourcing contaminated land. He added: “They have three contaminated land specialists for the whole of the country. If we do see a push on developing housing and brownfield development… then the regulators will have to be financially supported to make sure they are not the bottleneck that slows the process.”

Mr Mackenzie said he believed that legislatively-driven investigations into contaminated land had slowed down. He added: “Generally our remediation requirements are conservative. We are usually looking for standards that are risk- free and I believe legislatively-driven investigation have slowed down.

“The Scottish Government used to give local authorities targeted funding for contaminated land which was never ring- fenced and was increasingly used for other activities as local authorities came under more pressure to get the schools right, improve roads and repair pot-holes and the money will be spent on that. Hopefully the Task Force initiative will refocus funding on the sector.

The issue of contaminated land hit the media headlines earlier this year with a series of stories about residual hexavalent chromium from the former J&J Whyte’s chemical factory at the Clyde Gateway development site on the Glasgow- border.

SEPA was involved in tests and attempted to reassure the public after concerns that the neighbouring Burn had been contaminated with the substance made famous by the Erin Brockovich case in the US.

Mr Mackenzie said: “Chromium has been a huge issue in Glasgow for a long time, going back to the campaigner Rosie Kane chaining herself to the fence at Glasgow Chamber of Commerce in 1998.”

Ms Kane stood for the Scottish Socialist Alliance Party in a city council by-election in as she fought against the building of the M77 motorway in 1996 and later became an MSP

Mr Mackenzie gave some insight into the prolific use of Chromium in the last century.

He said: “Glasgow was the world’s largest producer of chromium salts for much of the 150 years of J&J Whyte’s operated at Shawfield. They took the ore from Africa, processed it and that left a residue, Chromium Ore Production Residue (COPR). It had good construction properties and, at the time, nobody was truly aware of the health risks associated with it.

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“But it’s also highly caustic with a pH of 11 to 12 in addition to the chromium contained within it. It’s a huge skin irritant for anyone or any animal coming into contact with it.” If ingested or inhaled it also has the potential to be toxic and even carcinogenic.

“The workers were known as the ‘Whyte’s canaries’ because so many of them had lost their nasal septum and used to end up whistling as a result.

“Sometimes the chromium was sent to landfill, but chromium waste also used to be used for road and pavement salt. Pet dogs would be brought into vets suffering from ulcerated pads after they walked on it.”

“COPR was used or disposed widely from Glasgow Airport to Coatbridge including for a number of football terraces. stadium had to be remediated to accommodate the hospitality village for the Champions League Final in 2002.”

Now that the risks are understood, attempts are being made to re-use it safely and ERS stabilised about 100,000 tonnes which were incorporated into the recent M74 road extension. Chromium made headlines with the Brockovich case in the 1990s. She successfully sued a chemical firm for hundreds of millions of pounds after the substance infected water supplies and the story of her legal battle became a film starring Julia Roberts.

He added: “It shouldn’t happen here (get into drinking water). A lot of work has been done to improve the quality of the Clyde’s water over the years, but chromium has been a huge issue for a long time.”

Unlocking the full potential of bioremediation

ERS Remediation is looking to push forward new innovations, including the DNA based analysis of environmental samples with the aim of unlocking bioremediation’s full potential. With this aim in mind, microbiologist Tom Aspray re-joined ERS from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.

Mr Aspray, right, explained “Although there are lots of micro-organisms in the environment, we can’t isolate or grow many of them in the laboratory hence why DNA based techniques are useful for both active and passive bioremediation”

Since his return, the ERS treatability laboratory has developed to include quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) analysis.

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Mr Aspray explained that “polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is an enzyme driven DNA copying process”. He added: “qPCR is a development of PCR in that it measures how the DNA of interest in a sample is copied. The earlier is happens in the qPCR test, the more copies of the DNA of interest in your original environmental sample”

“We can look at specific groups of micro-organisms or genes that encode for enzymes that degrade the contaminant of interest. It’s a versatile platform and we’ve developed around 20 different assays so far.”

The company is now uniquely placed in the UK with both the capability to deliver this state-of-the-art analysis and full understanding of the UK contaminated land market.

Andrew Mackenzie added the company had already used the technique on a petrochemical works in England contaminated with chlorinated solvents and hydrocarbons.

He believed his background before entering the industry in veterinary medicine helped him deal with the vast range of disciplines required to remediate land. Among 34-strong staff, there are microbiologists, civil engineers, chemists, biologists, mechanical and electrical engineers, remediation experts and hydro-geologists.

Mr Mackenzie added: “Many of the problems that I had faced as a vet, such as getting farriers to find a common language with physiotherapists are exactly the same as those to be found in the contaminated land market. In this company, we have engineers talking to chemists, biologists, microbiologists and hydrogeologists. All of these disciplines are pulled together in one place to understand the most complex of sites.”

“Because of the breadth of skills we have here, we are not selling a product – we are selling a service. Every site is different and we strive to deliver the right solution.”

FURTHER LINK: http://www.ersremediation.com/

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