Investigation and remediation of polluted sites

In 1952, the City of Fribourg abandoned the Pérolles trench as a landfill for household refuse in favour of the La Pila site. This site was used until the former Châtillon landfill became operational in February 1973. The current owner of the site is the State (canton) of Fribourg. The area of the landfill has been covered since 1975, is partially forested and covers an area of about two hectares. Since 2004, the La Pila site has been thoroughly investigated in application of the federal ordinance on the remediation of polluted sites. The results show that the old La Pila landfill contains mainly municipal waste (household waste, bulky items), construction site waste and commercial and industrial waste. The latter is in the form of capacitor waste, which is very heavily contaminated with PCBs. The waste also entered the Sarine, which led to fish being contaminated with PCBs. The high concentrations of PCBs detected led to a ban on fishing in the Sarine between the Rossens and Schiffenen dams on 29 August 2007. 

At its meeting of 2 October 2007, the State Council adopted a decision to organise the project for the remediation of the former La Pila landfill. Between 2012 and 2014, CSD prepared and implemented the preparatory measures for the partial remediation, which were aimed at removing the highly contaminated material in the Sarine bed and preventing the discharge of pollutants into the Sarine. Further investigations in the Sarine carried out by CSD in 2016 showed the success of the measures implemented: in 2017, fishing was allowed again, though with restrictions.

On the basis of these investigations, CSD worked out 4 remediation variants that would have a sufficient impact on emissions from the former landfill and thus on the quality of the Sarine (water, sediments, fauna). In 2021, the State Council determined partial remediation (decontamination through excavation) as the optimal remediation variant. This measure allows the removal of around 85% of the PCB mass or 65% of the volume of the landfill. In 2022, CSD prepared the preliminary project for the remediation.

The Kölliken hazardous waste landfill (SMDK) is the largest contaminated site in Switzerland. It is located in the middle of a residential area. It began operation in 1978 and was shut down from 1985 due to odour and dust emissions and made safe for the short term. It transpired that the landfill was threatening the closest water table. The remediation operation, officially approved in 2003, involves creating an appropriate infrastructure (support-free hall, rail connection etc.) and excavating a total of 500,000 tonnes of waste. The work is expected to be completed in 2017.

CSD ENGINEERS SA was commissioned by RPS Health Safety and Environment (London) to undertake an environmental review for EC HARRIS (Paris) of the Retail Centre Champs Fleuris at Matran (near Fribourg) in Switzerland.

The principal aim of the review was to determine whether there is potential for contamination to be present which would significantly constrain the use of the site, or give rise to the risk of significant environmental liability.

The report may also be relied on by any subsidiary of EC HARRIS and those institutions funding their purchase of the property.

The project was realized under the Decentralization and Local Development Program (DLDP) founded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and implemented by Helvetas Intercooperation. DLDP, with the technical support of CSD, has been providing support in the waste management sector in Northern Albania since 2007. It became a recognized and important partner in this sector in the country. DLDP’s support combines technical and co-financing assistance in planning and implementing waste collection and recycling systems. DLDP also focuses on local capacity development and on the development and implementation of new and innovative models for regional solutions (ie. regional transfer stations). Cost and tariff models as well as support to policy makers are central in DLDP’s approach.

RPS Health Safety and Environment was commissioned by an international purchaser to undertake Phase 1 Environmental Liability Review of 10 Hilton hotels in Europe and RPS commissioned CSD ENGINEERS SA for the audits in France, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Germany. The principal aim of the review was to determine whether there is potential for pollution or other environmental impacts to be present which would significantly give rise to the risk of significant environmental liability or may cause a significant depreciation of the building price.

Update and completion of a partial inventory to draw up the current status of POPs in Egypt. Identify the main hotspots (for PCBs and obsolete pesticides stockpiles) as defined by the Stockholm’s convention (>50 ppm).