2023 Volume 3 Pages 22-32
Illegal dumping of waste may directly lead to serious pollution problems because leakage and entry of chemicals into the environment are likely to occur. This article describes the environmental pollution caused by extremely large-scale illegal dumping of waste at two bordering prefecture sites in rural Japan and reviews the history and results of the implementation of technical measures to deal with the problem at one county site. The target pollutants are a wide variety of chlorinated volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and aromatic benzene due to the dumping of numerous drums containing waste solvents. From the geological characteristics and features related to the presence of contamination, site remediation was performed by applying a chemical method using lime and a combined method using pump-and-treat and bioremediation. This study describes the technical details of the soil and groundwater remediation over the years. Furthermore, we would like to consider what lessons should be learned from this long-running case of illegal dumping.
