Industries must address legacy contamination - firm

Despite a significant improvement in the parameters outlined by current environmental policy -  often diligently upheld by the local chemicals and petrochemicals industries - multidisciplinary engineering consultant SRK Consulting states that historic practices caused by lack of knowledge have created a legacy of environmental contamination issues that these industries must now address.

SRK principal geochemist and associate partner Richard O'Brien tells Engineering News that South Africa did not have any specific waste management legislation governing the disposal of hazardous waste produced by the heavy chemicals and petrochemicals industries prior to 1989.

Subsequently, waste man-agement during that period was often undertaken as an in-house industry process that took place at the chemicals or petrochemicals processing sites at the discretion of producers, he adds.

The lack of governance further led to insufficient measures being implemented by hazardous-waste producers to limit the environ-mental impact caused by their production processes.

Content provided by: Richard O'Brien and Tracey Drew of SRK Consulting.

Acknowledgement: Engineering News