A Stakeholder’s Perspective on Contaminated Land Management - Dealing with Contaminated Sites: From Theory Towards Practical Application - page 1072

sustainable remediation. It is not intended to be prescriptive as circumstances vary.
The SRWG hope that this guidance will promote sustainable remediation widely
through the European contaminated management sector. The guidance is available
on www.nicole.org .
More details on sustainable remediation are discussed in Bardos et al. ( Chapter
20 of this topic).
24.10.2 Applied Sustainability - A Case Study
The former Philips Site of Strijp S in the city centre of Eindhoven is currently being
redeveloped and transformed into a unique multi-use development for living, leisure
and work, which will involve a combination of new buildings and landscaping and
restoration of historic buildings around the site. During the development of the plans
very ambitious criteria were formulated for sustainability. As a result, for the first
time in Dutch history it was suggested that groundwater remediation should be
combined with groundwater energy supply. However, the combination of sustain-
able energy and remediation and their objectives results in certain contradictions.
Sustainable energy can be obtained from groundwater by pumping large flows and
extracting heat or cold with a heat pump. The aim of a groundwater energy system
is to maximise the energy capacity, which demands large groundwater flows. In the
case of groundwater remediation, on the other hand, flows are usually kept to a min-
imum to meet the remediation approach (containment or load reduction in an agreed
timeframe) and reduce costs..
A second paradox lies in the containment of groundwater. In a traditional
approach with Heat-Cold-Storage, groundwater is pumped from a cold zone to a
warm zone: using such an approach in a contaminated aquifer would potentially
result in an increased movement and spread of the contamination. A remediation
approach is primarily designed to contain and reduce the extent of contaminants,
therefore the Heat-Cold-Storage approach apparently contradicts the goal of remedi-
ation. The solution that has enabled this approach to be successful required a change
of the basic concept for the groundwater system. Instead of using cold and warm
zones in the subsurface, it was decided to use a recirculation system. This system of
extraction and infiltration wells uses a constant flow direction and extracts heat or
cold from groundwater with a constant temperature (at the Eindhoven site 12-13 C),
see Fig. 24.4 . This system allows for energy extraction, while containing the flow of
groundwater within a confined area, reducing the opportunity for the migration of
contaminants. Moreover, this procedure stimulates natural degradation. The recircu-
lation system leads to an increased mixing of the ingredients for natural degradation
(contaminants, microbes and nutrients).
This synergy between the needs for Heat-Cold-Storage and groundwater remedi-
ation leads to significant reductions of CO 2 emissions, approximately 3,000 tonnes
(50%) per year. The use of natural gas will decrease for this 27 ha site from 2.8
million cubic metres to less than 0.6 million cubic metres. At the same time, the