Low-Cost Remediation Technologies for Soil Contamination - Late 1990s to Early 2000s

Low-Cost Remediation Technologies for Soil Contamination - Late 1990s to Early 2000s
Low-cost remediation technology for soil contamination is a technology that emerged as a result of practical needs in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when soil environmental problems were becoming more visible socially and institutionally in Japan. Although soil contamination by heavy oil and volatile organic compounds was widespread at former factory sites, logistics centers, and oil storage facilities that were formed during the high-growth and bubble periods, it was not readily apparent at first and systematic countermeasures were delayed.

Since the late 1990s, as urban redevelopment and factory relocations progressed, soil investigation and remediation became inevitable as a precondition for land sales and reuse, and with the enactment of the Soil Contamination Countermeasures Law in 2003, contamination control became not only an environmental consideration, but also an issue directly related to business costs and business continuity. Conventional methods such as excavation removal and high-temperature heat treatment, while highly reliable, require large capital investment and treatment costs, making them particularly difficult to apply at small- and medium-scale sites.

Against this backdrop, a low-cost technology was developed for heavy oil and other contaminants with relatively well-defined properties to achieve practical purification effects while reducing the burden on facilities. Based on on-site treatment, the technology is characterized by its emphasis on balancing cost and effectiveness through a combination of agitation, aeration, chemical addition, and biological decomposition promotion.

In the early 2000s, this technology became established as a practical environmental remediation technology in construction demolition and former factory site rehabilitation, and played a role in integrating soil remediation into the normal land reclamation process.