Provisional actions for cleaning up the Volgermeerpolder refuse dump

Abstract

The Volgermeerpolder refuse dump, located just north of Amsterdam, has been proved to be seriously contaminated with organochlorine wastes, amounting in total to 2000 metric tons. The wastes consist mainly of chlorobenzenes and hexachlorocyclohexanes, but polychlorinated dibenzodioxin and dibenzofuran derivatives appear to be present as by-products of trichlorophenoxyacetic acid and dichlobenil herbicide synthesis. Most of the chemical wastes have been dumped in steel drums, which for a large part appear to be cracked and rusted through. The drums are unevenly distributed over the 100 ha large dump area. The last dumpings of chemical wastes date back to 1970. In order to reduce leach-out of the chemical wastes and to prevent any further hazardous exposure of humans and wild life all drums present in the topsoil layer of the dump have been tracked down, removed and stored in large steel containers which remain on the dump site, awaiting final disposal. All in all 1,128 drums out of 10,000 have been found and stored. The whole operation took more than 4 months. Workers were shielded by protective clothing, including masks, in order to prevent intake of toxic compounds by vapor inhalation or dust ingestion. Besides cleaning up of the dump's topsoil layer, any further transports of household wastes to the dump were stopped in 1981. Moreover, the dump site was enclosed by a barbed wire fence and a circular drainage ditch. The main waterway which drains the dump was closed off by a steel dam, while the sediment in the canal section outside the dump area, up to a distance of 1.5 km, was dredged and disposed of by carrying it back to the dumping site. An engineering consultant was assigned to develop final remedial action strategies for the whole dumping-site area.