Hydrocarbons
Coal tar, gasworks residues, refinery and terminal sludges, oily soils.
Coal tar from former gasworks is some of the oldest contamination in the country, and it is listed under the Hazardous Activities and Industries List (HAIL) for a reason. Fuel terminals, depots and refinery tankage produce sludges from tank cleaning. Oily soil turns up under workshops, ports and anywhere a separator overflowed for thirty years. The hydrocarbon fraction is the problem. The soil or water it sits in is not.
Former gasworks and coal tar sites
Fuel terminals, depots and refinery tankage
Ports, workshops and oil-water separators
Oily soil from redevelopment land
Landfill, export or long-term containment. Oily soils go to a Class 1 landfill under the waste disposal levy. Tars and heavy sludges are often exported, or capped and left under a management plan. Each pathway carries the whole mass as hazardous load and leaves the hydrocarbon fraction intact somewhere else.
The hydrocarbon fraction is separated. The clean fraction is verified. Soil goes back to the site or to a lower waste class. Water goes back. The hydrocarbon fraction leaves as a small, defined concentrate. The report, from an independent laboratory, closes the job.