Remediation and treatment of dioxin contamination: a former sawmill site with soil and sediments contaminated with dioxin and pentachlorophenol have been remediated using excavation methods, and the most dioxine impacted soil have been successfully treate

Abstract

Between 1928 and 1976, a sawmill was located at the shore of Brosjön in the small village of Ydrefors in Ydre municipality in eastern Sweden. During the last ten years of the sawmill’s operating years, a product namned Servarex was used to prevent fungus attacks of the timber. Servarex caused a contamination of dioxins in the soil, as well as pentachlorophenol (PCP) in groundwater. In the main study, the sampling revealed concentrations of dioxins (610,000 ng/kg) that was the highest detected level in Sweden. During the autumn of 2013, RGS 90 performed remediation of dioxins contaminated soil and sediment through excavation. The dioxins contaminated soil with levels above the hazardous waste limit (15,000 ng/kg) is not allowed to be deposed in Sweden. The soil was therefore successfully treated with chemical oxidation at RGS 90:s facility in Norrköping, Sweden.