Soil Management — An Industry-Specific Approach

The Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij explores for and produces oil and gas at numerous locations scattered all over the country and situated in various types of environment and on different types of soil. These activities are basically temporary, as after reservoir depletion the sites will be abandoned.Formerly accepted production and maintenance practices did not necessarily aim at the prevention of soil pollution, although incidental pollution usually led to ad hoc clean-up. In facing its responsibility for controlling the soil quality, the Company is presently developing a structural and fundamental approach to managing risks posed by the contaminants. This has resulted in a well-defined process of risk assessment, with the true objective of sensible risk managament. The basic principle is that of risk assessment of targets in and outside the locations, which are presently threatened or may be threatened when the contamination spreads. Targets include: human health, safety, equipment and facilities, and functions and usages of the soil.In this paper the principles of this approach to managing soil pollution are presented, including the methodology for development of site-specific clean-up criteria.