Who will use background concentrations of pollutants in urban and industrial soils? A survey of the intentions of regulators in seven European regions/countries.

Vandeuren, Aubry [UCL] Pereira, Benoît [UCL] Sonnet, Philippe [UCL]

Background concentrations of pollutants in soil can play different roles in soil protection policies. They can be used for instance to detect a local pollution or to calculate the cleaning targets if a site has to be remediate. However, soils from urban and industrial areas generally present high concentration of pollutants, since they usually are disturbed by urbanization, mixed with technogenic material and affected by smoke and dust fallout. In these zones, background concentrations can be very high and fluctuating across short distances. It is therefore difficult to calculate them precisely, and use them properly for the roles they must fulfill. Dealing with this notion in soil protection policy can therefore be complicated. We present seven western European approaches for the consideration of background concentrations in soil protection policies: Flanders, Wallonia, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Germany, France, England and the Netherlands. The definition of the concept of background concentrations of pollutants in soils, the way to calculate them and their roles are presented between these different systems that have various pedogeological and industrial contexts. The advantages and disadvantages of these systems are presented and discussed especially with regards to soils from urban and industrial areas. It appears from this survey that neighboring states use background concentrations to diverse goals. Background concentrations are used to calculate cleaning targets in the case of soil remediation (France, Flanders, Wallonia and Grand Duchy of Luxembourg) and to detect local pollution (England, Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg and Wallonia). In the Netherlands and Germany, background concentrations are used for other purposes regarding soil protection (reuse of soil, spreading of sludge from wastewater treatment plants, etc).