Bringing Sustainable Management of Contaminated Sites into Practice – The Role of Policy and Regulations - Dealing with Contaminated Sites: From Theory Towards Practical Application - page 1021

of volatile compounds (mostly from severe groundwater contamination) under or
in houses. Contaminated soil may lead to contaminated indoor dust and thus to
an increased human exposure. Apart from heavily contaminated sites, and prob-
lems with volatile compounds under houses due to groundwater contamination, the
impacts on human health are generally limited if the soil is not used for vegetable
gardens or as playground for children.
23.2.1.4 Sediments
Sediments are the major sinks for water contamination. They reflect the former
large-scale contamination of surface waters (metals, mineral oil, PAHs, polychlo-
rinated biphenyls or PCBs, old pesticides). The quality of the surface waters has
much improved due to more stringent emission controls, but now the sediments
have become a threat for their ecological impacts in the cleaner waters. In many
cases, sediments are generally unfit for use on land, after dredging, in agricultural
and natural areas. Because river- and harbour- management often requires dredging,
the contaminated sediments are a big burden for society. In addition, contaminated
sediments have impacts on terrestrial soils after flooding.
The general picture that emerges from the characterisations above is that soils in
agricultural and nature areas in Europe are usually in an acceptable state with respect
to contamination, but are under pressure. This general picture may be valid also for
other parts of the world although it should be realised that diffuse contamination
can sometimes affect quite large areas. Taking into account the average land use
distribution in 15 EU countries (Fig. 23.1 ; data elaborated from Eurostat, LUCAS
survey ( 2003 )), it may be generally concluded that approximately 70% of EU soils
are still in reasonable shape, with the exclusion of problems occurring in certain
areas. However, if pressures continue at the current level, as it is already evident
in some problem areas, impacts will start to occur on a larger scale, because con-
taminants quite often tend to accumulate in soils, leading to a degradation of soil
Fig. 23.1 Average land use distribution in 15 EU countries. Data elaborated from Eurostat,
LUCAS survey ( 2003 )