Feature Strategic Initiative: CLUSTER (UK)

David Edwards, Dietmar Müller and Yvonne Spira

CLUSTER is an initiative - developed by  CL:AIRE and supported by  Grantscape,  English Partnerships,  National Grid,  Sheffield City Council, the  Environment Agency,  SAGTA, and  VHE - to establish a systematic and sustainable approach to dealing with certain types of contaminated sites. A CLUSTER is defined as "a group of sites that are categorised as land affected by contamination, which include shared decontamination capacity located at one site to produce recovered materials that are reused by itself and by the other sites in the group".

EURODEMO is very pleased to feature the CLUSTER as strategic initiative as it

• makes soil remediation of small sites economically viable
• enables larger sites with small volumes of contaminated soil to be remediated
  
• delivers significant sustainability benefits
  
• is a good example of close stakeholder cooperation.

EURODEMO supports this strategic initiative, as the CLUSTER approach may provide the only economically viable way of making remediation feasible on sites that contain small volumes of contaminated soil, which individually cannot overcome the initial plant mobilisation costs. By remediating contaminated soil from the different sites (donors) using a temporary on-site ex-situ remediation plant on one of those sites (the hub), the recovery of material suitable for use back on the sites (receivers) is maximised, and landfill disposal is minimised.
Based on stakeholder and expert input, a Draft CLUSTER Code of Practice was developed as the basis for a National Best Practice Note in order to provide an industry guideline for CLUSTER projects. Additionally, a methodology is currently (Dec 2007) under agreement for enabling successfully treated soils to be released from waste management controls. These are good examples of close stakeholder cooperation.

David Edwards (CL:AIRE, UK)

CLUSTER is a very good example of how intelligent operational and regulatory procedures can remove barriers that impede progress in dealing with contaminated sites. CL:AIRE believes that this participatory approach to dealing with non-viable sites, or sites that would normally employ landfill disposal as a solution, has European potential. In addition, CLUSTER treatment 'hubs' would be ideal locations for demonstrating the types of ex situ treatment processes that EURODEMO seeks to encourage. For these reasons, CL:AIRE is very pleased that CLUSTER has been selected as a Feature Project.