Mucking out guide

The problem? After 300 years of bomb-making, the soil is contaminated with heavy metals and hydrocarbons. Now people want to develop it, and a wholesale transplantation of the muck to landfill is not an option.

The solution? Soil washing, scrubbing, de-sanding, de-silting, sludge de-watering.

Great, but how do you do it?

This scenario is one of 10 case studies in a book published jointly by the DTI and CIRIA, entitled Non-biological Methods for Assessment and Remediation of Contaminated Land. Dealing with some of the nastiest places in Britain – oil depots, tanneries, gasworks and smelters – the book provides guidance on new techniques for finding out what's in the ground and how to deal with it. It's targeted at contractors, developers, regulatory bodies and consultants, and focuses on methods whose cost and performance data are not widely known.