Manami Fujikura

Deputy Director Soil and agricultural chemicals division, Water Quality Bureau Japan Environment Agency
(1-2-2 Chiyoda-ku, Kasumigaseki, Tokyo 100-8975 Japan)

Abstract

Soil contamination is by nature accumulative. For this reason, control measures regarding soil contamination are divided into preventive and remedial approaches. The target of these measurements are for setting Environmental Quality Standards for soil. Reinforcement of the landfill standards set by the Waste Disposal and Public Cleansing Law have played an important role in the prevention of soil contamination. Since the landfill site is a place which define an area of containment from the environment, Soil Environment Quality Standards are not applied. The abolition standard has recently been introduced into the waste processing method. If the landfill site after abolition maintains a function distinguished from the environment, Environmental Quality Standards will also not be applied. Remedial measures applied to polluted soil are, firstly, to clean up and at least, to intercept human exposure to the soil. The Environment Agency revised investigative/measurement guidelines for soil and groundwater in January of this year. Examinations have also been made for the dioxins in contaminated soil.

Key words: soil contamination, environmental quality standards, landfill standards, abolition standards, Investigative/measurement guidelines