Welcome to the DGE Group

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Welcome to the DGE Group
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DGE Danish Geo-servEx - an international
consulting company
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DGE has considerable knowledge and experience
within the following environmental subjects

• Investigations and remediation of contaminated
  soil and groundwater
• Also remediation based on in-situ techniques
• Environmental risk assessment
• Groundwater investigations and resource
  evaluation
• Water catchments
• Geological and geophysical surveys
• Environmental evaluations of chemicals
• For further information see www.dge.lt
• This PowerPoint presentation can be downloaded on
  this site

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The Danish environmental legislationThe rules
for private citizens (general terms)

• You are only responsible for environmental impact
  to third party property, if the contamination has
  happened due to irresponsible behavior
• Environmental impact to your own property is not
  covered by any standard insurance policy
• There are special rules for private oil tanks for
  house warming

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The Danish environmental legislation The rules
for business companies (general terms)

• As a business company you are responsible for
  environmental impact and can be forced by law to
  make investigations and remediation if private or
  public interests are threatened
• For contamination made after the year 2000 the
  responsibility is unrestricted
• For older contaminations it has to be
  demonstrated that the contamination has happened
  due to irresponsible behaviour (demonstration is
  difficult)
• Environmental impact to a companys own property
  is not covered by any standard insurance

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The three main insurance types covering
environmental impact on soil and groundwater

• Professional third party liability insurance
• Comprehensive environmental insurance
• Specific environmental insurance for private oil
  tanks a new Danish invention! (Statutory)

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Professional third party liability insurance

• A third party insurance is covering damages on
  another mans property caused by the companys
  owner or the employees
• This type of insurance is in principal voluntary,
  but in practice almost every company has got one
• This insurance also covers environmental
  contamination, but only if the damage is proved
  to be abrupt
• Do not cover damages on the companies own
  property

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The most common contamination damages covered by
professional third party insurances

• Overloading of oil and petrol tanks
• Defective or incorrect workmanship of for
  instance oil pipes between heating oil tanks and
  the oil burners
• Tanks and pipelines that are damaged by
  excavators
• Traffic accidents involving tank-wagons
• Tanks and pipelines that spring a leak due to
  manufacturing faults

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Comprehensive environmental insurance
arrangements in general

• Normally very expensive
• Therefore not very widespread
• Only companies dealing with high risk products in
  very large amounts (e.g. oil companies) have
  insurance arrangements

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Comprehensive environmental insurance
arrangements within the oil business

• All major oil companies in Denmark have insurance
  arrangements since the beginning of the nineties
• Covers only legal demands which the authorities
  can impose
• Covers both investigation and remediation also
  on the petrol station itself
• Normally financed by an extra charge on the
  petrol price paid by the costumers

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Most essential contamination damages on petrol
stations

• Overloading of tanks
• Leakages in the underground pipes
• Leaking oil separators
• Waste from car drivers when filling their
  automobiles

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Specific comprehensive insurance for private oil
tanks

• This insurance is statutory
• The tank volume must be less than 6000 litres
• The facility must be used primarily for house
  heating purposes
• The facility is legally organized and fully
  functional
• The contamination is not caused intentionally by
  the owner
• Covers contamination discovered after 1 March
  2000, this means that also older contaminations
  are covered
• This insurance is financed by an extra charge on
  all heating oil sold in Denmark

The environmental situation prior to the event
will be re-established, that means, that minor
contamination some times can be left behind
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The most common damages covered by the private
oil tank insurance

• Corrosion of primarily outdoor surface tanks
• Corrosion or breakage on oil pipes
• Overturned surface tanks
• Damages caused when digging in the ground

Almost 200 contaminations covered by this
insurance are cleaned up per year in Denmark
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A case story concerning third party liability
insurance - a tank-wagon is turned over

• The traffic accident happens in April 2005 on a
  highway in DK
• App. 16,000 litres of petrol is floating onto the
  ground
• The soil layers mostly consist of sand in the
  area (highly penetrably)
• The groundwater table is app. 15 m b.s. and can
  be affected
• The nearest water catchments is situated app. 300
  m away

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Immediate actions after the accident

• The driver calls the local fire department from
  his mobile phone
• Foam is spread on the area to prevent fire or
  explosions
• The environmental authorities are informed by the
  fire department
• The transport company contacts the insurance
  company

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The tank-wagon tips over and foam is spread.

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The situation from the reverse angel.

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Actions the following day.

• DGE is contacted by the insurance company
• A plan for investigation is made by DGE in
  co-operation with the local municipality
• The first investigation drillings are made
• Soil and ground water samples are analyzed at the
  laboratory

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The visible evidence the day after the accident.
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Investigation drillings are made.
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Soil sampling in the hot-spot area.

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The contaminated area is mapped - horizontal
and vertical.
Site plan
Highway

Hot-spot
Cross section
Highway
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Strategy for removal of the contamination

• A preliminary risk assessment made by DGE shows
  that a complete removal of the contamination
  might not be necessary
• No need for removal of the contamination under
  the road if the rest is removed by excavators
  (the road traffic will not be disturbed)
• The removed soil shall be transported to a soil
  cleaning station and observation wells shall be
  made to examine the groundwater quality
• Both the local municipality and the regional
  council approves this strategy

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Excavators remove app. 2/3 of the contaminated
soil.

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App. 1,500 tons of heavy contaminated soil is
transported to a biological soil treatment
station.
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Mapping the soil quality in the final excavation.

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The excavation is filled with clean sand

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Final work for finishing the project

• DGE makes a report for documentation purposes
  including
• - a detailed map with the results of more than
  50 analyzes
• of soil from the final excavation
• - a detailed risk assessment against the
  groundwater (app. 3,000 litres of petrol are
  left behind under the road)
• - documentation for delivering 1,500 tons of
  contaminated
• soil to the biological treatment station
• - a plan for monitoring the ground water quality
  in the future
• The environmental authorities make a written
  approval of the DGE report
• Case is closed.