Welcome to the first EURODEMO+ newsletter!

It’s definitely time to update you all regarding EURODEMO+! Please make yourself familiar with the new developments that have taken place over the summer and enjoy reading!

Yours sincerely,

 

Dietmar Müller and Yvonne Spira

EURODEMO+ secretariat
Environment Agency Austria

EURODEMO in Land Contamination and Reclamation Journal

The Land Contamination and Reclamation special issue “MOKKA: Modern Engineering Tools” including EURODEMO contributions is currently in press and will be published as volume 17, 2009.

 

Common Position Paper “Cleaner land saving money and ecology - innovation pays back twice”

A look back

At CONSOIL 2008 in Milan the idea of a Common Position Paper of NICOLE, EURODEMO+ and COMMON FORUM was born. Within the following year, mainly Arthur de Groof from Grontmij, NL (NICOLE), and Yvonne Spira (on behalf of EURODEMO+) had prepared the first draft, which was presented to the three networks in their respective meetings in spring 2009, where the principal agreement to the contents of the paper and to participate in this initiative was given by all three networks. Comments were included in the paper and in late summer / early autumn 2009 the paper was again presented to NICOLE and COMMON FORUM.

Current State

After the COMMON FORUM meeting in Helsinki NICOLE approached the EURODEMO+ secretariat with the idea and question that our demonstration network may withdraw from the further process to launch the paper together. It was felt that in order to avoid possible conflicts of interest and finally deliver a credible message, the general networks of regulators and industry should give their branding, whereas other networks (with more specific missions like EURODEMO+) will be beneficiaries on terms of possible implementation activities of the proposed action plan. Generally the current draft paper of NICOLE and COMMON FORUM is considerably shorter (2 pages) and audience-targeted (policy-makers).

 

Publication in Dutch Periodical "Bodem"

The article "Cleaner land saving money and environment - innovation pays back twice" (A. Sinke, Y. Spira, D. Darmendrail) coordinated by Arthur de Groof on behalf of NICOLE, COMMON FORUM and EURODEMO+, was published in issue no. 4, August 2009 (in Dutch).

CL:AIRE: SURF UK Framework Consultation

The consultation period has ended with 31.10.2009, EURODEMO+ provided feedback to the consultation. The interested reader can still access the consultation draft on the CL:AIRE website. The final version will be out in the next month.

 

GreenRemediation - Incorporating Sustainable Approaches in Site Remediation

International Conference, November 9 - 10, 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark

Sustainable approaches for decision making and soil remediation are more relevant than ever. The objective of the GreenRemediation Conference was to improve the awareness of green remediation solutions among environmentalists and decision makers. The two days conference addressed the main topics

• Policy Drivers,
• Decision Support Tools and
• Sustainable Remediation Technologies.

More than 120 experts participated in the conference. EURODEMO+ was represented in the scientific committee by Paul Bardos and Dietmar Müller. The final discussion was moderated by Carlos Pachon (US EPA) and Dietmar Müller (EURODEMO+). A summary is given on the Activities page.

As a follow-up it is intended to have sessions at ConSoil 2010 (Salzburg, Austria, September 22 - 24, 2010) and to organise a 2nd Sustainable Remediation Conference in 2011. On behalf of EURODEMO+ Dietmar Müller expressed the interest and willingness to organise this 2nd conference.

 

TASK Leipzig is the Centre of Competence for Soil, Groundwater and Site Revitalisation and aims at enhancing innovation and technology and knowledge transfer. Recently TASK has implemented an MNA Workshop in Cracow, Poland.

Now TASK is looking for contacts in Central and East Europe, especially in CZ, HU, IT, PL, RO, in order to find out, which technologies (e.g. MNA, monitoring, remediation technologies) could benefit from training initiatives by TASK. Please contact Nadine Fütterer , if you know respective contact persons - especially from science and administration - in these countries!

No.	Aim	Status	Follow up
1	Newsletter "EURODEMO+ kicks off"	not sent	quarterly newsletter in 2010
2	Homepage update	done	see EURODEMO+
3	addressing sustainable remediation - NICOLE workshop (Leuven) - Green Remediation Conference (Copenhagen)	- contacted, no presentation possibility - Paul Bardos and Dietmar Müller as Scientific Board Members	in progress (see Outlook 2010) - organization of GreenRemediation 2011
4	data-base activities - wish-list - Priotization - national update	partly achieved - done - done - ?	in progress
5	establishing TASK cooperation on CEE countries (and database cooperation)	in progress	in progress
6	Common Position Paper "Cleaner land saving money and ecology - innovation pays back twice"	follow-up until summer, activity stopped by September 2009 (see above)	none
7	Nanotechnology, web-seminar (contacts, projects; CZ, FR, DE)	no activities	open
8	nanotechnology "fact sheet"	no activities	open
9	ambassadors network - ask interest, demands - further interested parties - ambassadors webpage - aim at follow-up activities	no activities	open
10	development and consolidation of N/RDP's - support to fund-raising at national level	4 N/RDP's committed - no activities	in progress - open
11	the "once-target" itself (11 countries!) - importance NL involvement - first contacts to DK network and MCN (SE) - advertise at homepage - European funding possibilities	failed - no activities - done - done - no activities	in progress - open - none - none - open

Next EURODEMO+ Meeting

As was agreed at the kick-off meeting, the next EURODEMO+ meeting will take place next spring. Please let us if you want to host this meeting and provide possible topics for the meeting:

• an issue/problem, which could benefit from transnational exchange, or
• a solution / “good practice” example from your country, which could be interesting for transfer to another country!

CONSOIL 2010

EURODEMO+ aims to leave a footprint to the next ConSoil. Therefore the invitation to send your ideas for presentations or special sessions to the EURODEMO+ secretariat remains open. Several suggestions (Thanks to all partners contributing by their ideas!) were already passed. At the current stage a general idea would be to have/organize three sessions/blocks under EURODEMO+ patronance:

• Sustainable Remediation (together with SuRF US & SuRF UK)
• In-situ Remediation (lead by partners from the Czech Republic)
• Ex-situ Remediation (focus: reuse of contaminated soils and sediments - lead by Renare Mark and partners from Sweden)

The deadline for submitting abstracts is December 21, 2009. The EURODEMO+ secretariat aims to organise topics and abstracts, which may be assembled together in specific sessions. The final decision is with the ConSoil Program Committee. Nevertheless all EURODEMO+ partners selected to present on innovation in site remediation are encouraged to inform the secretariat and flag up as members of our network.