SPATIAL VARIABILITY AND SAMPLING OF CYANIDE POLLUTED SOIL ON FORMER GALVANIC FACTORY PREMISES

Former galvanic factory premises are often heavily contaminated with cyanide, requiring redevelopment of the soil. In this study attention is focused on one particular site in the Netherlands. In an area of 0.8 ha 344 observations were taken at different depths in the upper 3 m of soil. Three different procedures based on spatial variability studies are compared to calculate the extent of polluted soil as well as the uncertainties associated with it on the basis of this number of observations. As it turns out, a more evenly distributed data configuration results in a reduction of the extent of soil to be redeveloped when the decision procedure involved is based on the probability of exceeding a critical concentration level. Hence a small but structural reduction of the associated costs was achieved.