China to tackle soil remediation project

Chinese officials are this year expected to enforce laws regarding soil remediation in order to put land to other uses.

The country contains plenty of land where factories once stood and solid waste was stored and processed, that is subject to soil contamination with pollution hazards, and these sites will be the main targets for the project.

Experts from the Shanghai Academy of Environmental Sciences said that scientists are expected to be testing the soil before conducting clean ups this year.

Indeed, Shaghai is known to be making progress in this area, with the academy recently earning the approval of the Ministry of Environmental Protection to establish the country’s first soil pollution control and remediation centre.

The centre is being set up in order to keep a closer eye on areas of toxic soil in China. It will work with officials around the country to monitor and clean up urban land and underground water pollution.

Experts have identified the former locations of chemical plants, factories that manufactured toxic products and waste storage and processing sites as worthy of particular attention. These sites could hold dangerous organic substances such as benzene as well as heavy metals like chromium, cadmium, lead, mercury and arsenic.

Luo Qishi, the center's director, commented: "We established the Shanghai Center for Soil Remediation in 2005 and so far have done over 30 projects.

"The national center is to study technology of soil remediation on industrial use soil for cities, develop technical equipment, study policies of soil pollution prevention, and monitor and publicize the experience gained in trials."

One of the major projects previously carried out by the centre was the cleanup of sites that used to contain factories for the 2010 Shaghai World Expo.

As the economy is restructured, many factories and other such buildings are being located. This means that the testing and cleanup projects are likely to grow over the next few years.

Experts noted that high levels of soil pollution can put the environment and public health at risk. This means the work is essential.