Environmental Impact Assessment Schemes Considering Fate and Transport of Soil Contaminants
Soil environment has not received much attention from the environmental impact assessor community although soil contamination may affect human health and the eco-system. This study was the first trial to discuss the role and importance of soil environment in the environmental impact assessment (EIA) and suggest possible environmental impact assessment schemes for soil. The objectives of the study were to show the effects of soil contamination on human health, the environment and the social community, suggest efficient EIA schemes in Korea and establish the basic concepts of soil environment assessment involving fate and transport of contaminants and its risk.
Soil contamination resulted in various problems in either construction plans or the environment. Discovery of contaminated site during construction may result in time and economic losses due to delay of construction. Thus, EIA needs a through investigation on the soil environment of the construction site. New EIA schemes would be needed to assess the effects of soil contamination on groundwater, surface water and air qualities and the risks of environmental contamination.
Analysis of EIA reports revealed that the current soil investigation was conducted within few sampling points of construction sites and conducted only on farmlands which were normally uncontaminated. Most of EIA reports have not dealt with estimation or prediction of soil pollution from implementation of construction plans although EIA guidelines of K