Sustainable Geoenvironmental Engineering Practice - Sustainable Practices in Geoenvironmental Engineering - page 481

• Energy utilization : Conservative energy use as a target for remediation proce-
dures does not always produce results that will support complete site remedia-
tion. Comparing two speciic remediation procedures for energy use is a good
procedure in minimizing depletion of energy resources, especially nonrenewable
energy resources. Since the energy resource to be used for both remediation and
rehabilitation procedures is hydroelectric based, and assuming that this is fully
renewable, the sustainability feature here can be viewed more as a conservation
measure. The energy indicators are referenced speciically to the remediation-
rehabilitation processes and not to the production of hydroelectricity.
• Noxious emissions : The use of hydroelectricity as the source of power has essen-
tially limited noxious emissions. Since the impact of CO 2 discharges has been
minimized with the type of energy used, one will need to accept that emissions
indicators for full sustainability cannot be realistically set. A set of realistic param-
eters and values for emissions indicators needs to be prescribed.
• Nonrenewable and renewable resource materials : The metals used are nonrenewable
resources. Although reuse of the asphalt pavement material and the underlying
and contiguous contaminated soil for road construction shows a positive approach
to the principles of sustainability, there is a requirement for monitoring to ensure
that these materials do not present future contamination problems to the immedi-
ate environment. As with the situation of emissions, a set of appropriate param-
eters and values for material and system status indicators is required.
The use of recycled products in construction of roads has also been recently demonstrated
in a project in Finland designed to show that sensitivity to sustainability objectives in con-
struction of roads (Lahtinen et al., 2005). New types of road construction materials based on
the industrial by-products, ly ash, and iber ash were evaluated in new roads. Fiber ash was
evaluated in light trafic paths and for the widening of safety lanes. The pilot construction
took place in 2002 and 2003. Monitoring of the road performance is underway until the end
of 2005. The ly ash was obtained from the incineration of bark, peat, and/or sludge and the
iber ash is a iber sludge from the paper industry with ly ash and cement binder. Up to now,
the results of using the recycled materials in the road construction is positive both technically
and economically and provides a potential way of saving virgin, nonrenewable resources.
13.5.2 Sustainable Mining Land Conversion
Mount Cenis was established as a coal mine near Herne in the Ruhr District of Germany
in 1871 (Genske, 2003). Subsequent coal washing and coking facilities were then built. The
mine was one of the largest in the area but it was closed in 1978 due to the coal and steel
crisis in Europe. At the site, 26 ha of land were contaminated. There was subsidence, acid
mine drainage, mine gas leakage, and many underground structures. However, in 1990, a
large project was conceptualized to remediate and reuse the land for companies and enter-
prises. The main features of the project as shown in Figure 13.6 (EMC, 1998; http://www
.akademie-mont-cenis.de) included
• An academy for the Ministry of Interior (the largest building)
• Various public service buildings such as a meeting hall, civic administration
buildings, and a library