Remediating Soil While Preserving Soil Structure
The importance of soil cannot be overstated. It’s the basis of agriculture, and as a result, is a critical component of sustaining human life. According to the EPA: “Productive soils, a favorable climate, and clean and abundant water resources are all essential for growing crops, raising livestock, and for ecosystems to continue to provide the critical provisioning services that humans need.”
Human populations across the globe are rising, which means soil is more important than ever. In fact, the EPA goes on to say, “we believe improving the health of our Nation’s soil is one of the most important conservation endeavors of our time.” As a result, when soil is contaminated with any number of toxins, it can cause a range of problems and pose a threat to both the environment and surrounding communities.
Unfortunately, some level of soil contamination is a side effect and hazard of many industries. Once soil is contaminated, it is no longer safe for farming or residential and commercial uses. There is also a risk of contaminants seeping from the soil into the water tables and causing a health emergency.
Remediating contaminated soil is a must, both to mitigate risks to people in the surrounding areas and to restore the area to its natural state. But it’s important to note that not all remediation methods are created equally when it comes to preserving soil structure. In order to effectively solve the problem of contamination, restore the soil to beyond acceptable standards, and maintain native soil to protect fragile ecosystems, modern soil remediation methods must be implemented.
The Importance of Soil Structure & Native Soils
Soil is the basis of all agriculture, and reports indicate that many places are experiencing accelerated soil loss due to erosion. Soil erosion is troubling for a number of reasons, and can result in up to a 50% crop loss. One of the ways in which to reduce soil erosion is to maintain a healthy soil structure.
Soil structure is defined as the arrangement and actual physical construction of particles and aggregates within the soil. It influences the flow and distribution of water and nutrients, helps to reduce erosion, and impacts the growth of crops and plants. Whereas soil is teeming with life and has a structure, dirt is dead with no structure. Dirt cannot support life, which is another reason why maintaining soil structure is so important.
Pollutants can build up and degrade the soil. This decline in soil quality is extremely problematic, but the risks don’t stop at erosion and crop yields. When toxins sit in the soil, they can permeate groundwater and pollute water tables. As we know, when water sources are affected, the matter becomes dire. One only needs to look to Red Hill in Hawaii, in which residents were sickened and displaced as a result of aging infrastructure that leached fuel into the drinking water. The EPA can hold those responsible for the pollution and charge up to $37,500 for each day of non-compliance with clean-up laws. To mitigate environmental, human safety and financial cost, contaminated soil should be addressed as soon as possible.
Traditional Remediation Technologies Cannot Fully Eliminate Contaminants
Soil remediation is a term that encompasses a range of methods that can be deployed to remove pollutants, including petroleum and fuels, from the soil. There are many different types of in-situ and ex-situ traditional soil remediation.
Both traditional in-situ and ex-situ soil treatment methods can take weeks to set up, and when groundwater seepage is a concern, every moment matters. The goal of soil remediation is to restore the soil, but many traditional solutions pulverize the soil, damaging the structure and making it so that the area is void of nutrients and cannot naturally revegetate.
Most traditional technologies can produce up to 30% reject waste after treatment, which then needs to be trucked to a landfill. Relocating the contaminated soil doesn’t treat the problem, it creates more carbon emissions.
One of the traditional ex-situ technologies that is a viable solution for treating contaminated soil is soil washing. Soil washing, while effective, generates “fines.” In order to process the “fines” that soil washing leaves behind, a supplementary technology like Iron Creek Group’s is applied to fully eliminate the residual contaminants left behind. This technology helps consultants, businesses and governments overcome some of the limitations of traditional remediation methods.
Modern Soil Remediation Technology Preserves Soil Structure
Iron Creek Group’s Enhanced Thermal Conduction (ETC) technology is designed to treat 100% of contaminated soil and treatment does not result in reject waste.
More so, ETC can be powered by alternate fuels like hydrogen, biomass and solar. It was also designed to pull hydrocarbons from contaminated soil and direct the elements to power the remediation process, thereby recycling contaminants within the soil to power the cleanup. This allows corporations to delist the contamination from their records and reduce the carbon footprint of the treatment process.
Iron Creek Group’s technology is built to operate in a range of environments, with a proven track record to remediate soil in remote environments such as the Arctic Circle. Unlike other remediation methods, its all-weather capability means that the project doesn’t halt during extreme winter temperatures.
After treatment is complete, the soil meets the most stringent environmental regulations in the world. Critically, the treated soil can be backfilled where the natural revegetation of native plants takes place — this alone provides a range of healthy environmental benefits. Not only does reusing the native soil save money and reduce the carbon footprint associated with trucking in non-native soils, but it also protects critical ecosystems in some of the most pristine places on the planet.
For soil remediation in urban environments, Iron Creek’s technology is ideal because it can scale, it’s quiet, nimble, and can be set up swiftly. When there is soil pollution in communities near people, it’s critical to immediately address the contamination to protect drinking water.
Iron Creek’s modern technology affords consultants, businesses, and operation managers predictable remedial endpoints and budgets. More so, the technology reduces the cost of overhead and eliminates the carbon emissions associated with trucking the contaminated material to landfills thereby eliminating future environmental liability.
When considering remediation technologies, choose modern, sustainable technology that treats 100% of the problem while protecting soil structure and critical ecosystems.
About Iron Creek Group
Serving North America, Iron Creek Group specializes in developing innovative, nimble technology that solves complex environmental issues. Learn how they’re leveraging technology to challenge the existing remediation paradigm by visiting, https://www.ironcreekgroup.com
For questions and further information, please email Ken Bell: ken@ironcreekgroup.com.