Erection of a Dwelling Adjacent to a Limestone Quarry, Stainton, Rotherham

Case Study Reference: 11-05-02

Planning Authority: Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster

Planning Reference: 10/00497/FUL

Synopsis:

A desk study report was prepared by others to discharge the contaminated land planning condition for the site.  This report was submitted and a number of issues were raised in regards to the content of the report. At the time of being commissioned the dwelling had been erected and gas protection measures had been incorporated into the building design.

Demeter Environmental Ltd were commissioned to resolve the issues relating to the desk study report and agree a scope of the Phase II intrusive works.

The previous desk study report identified the site as being in a former quarry.

Once the scope of the intrusive works had been agreed the site investigation, which comprised of skunking  a number of dynamic sampling boreholes across the site was undertaken with gas monitoring wells installed in three of the boreholes.

The site investigation identified elevated levels of benzo(a)pyrene in site soils which had the potential to impact on human health, the ground gas monitoring recorded elevated levels of carbon dioxide as well as the site soils posing a risk to plastic water mains.

It was concluded that the gas protection measures installed into the existing building were sufficient to mitigate the risk form ground gases. In order t demonstrate the measures had been correctly installed monitoring of confined spaces within the dwelling were undertaken to demonstrate ground gases were not accumulating in the dwelling.

The validation of the proposed remediation was undertaken in 2011 and it was demonstrated that the remediation in the garden areas had bene completed correctly and the gas protection measures incorporated into the building were sufficient.