CityChlor Newsletter

This is the first newsletter of CityChlor, we will send this newsletter twice a year to keep you informed about the progress we make in this unique project. In this first newsletter:

• Citychlor path in a nutshell
• Partner and pilot test in the picture: Utrecht (biowashingmachine)
• Agenda
• Read more about 

Citychlor in a nutshell
September 17th CityChlor was born (official approval by the European authorities). This long-term European research project aims an integrated approach for the tackling of soil and groundwater pollution with chlorinated solvents in urban environments. Our research budget involves 5,2 million euro of which 50% is financed by the European INTERREG IV B-programme for Northwest Europe.

January 27th the official Startevent took place in Utrecht. More than 50 specialists from the four collaborating countries were present. The decisionmakers of the nine partners from Germany, France, the Netherlands and Flanders signed the partnership agreement, committing to work together on this project for the next 3,5 years.

Since this startevent, regional workshops were organised in Flanders and in the Netherlands. The reports can be consulted on the Citychlor website. Germany and France have planned their workshops in June. With these workshops we want to collect all existing knowledge and finetune the actions planned for the next period.

Workpackages and Tenders for Pilot Tests
The CityChlor project is divided into four work packages that will combined into one integrated unit in 2013. Read more about the workpackages on the website.

Partner and pilot test in the picture: Utrecht

To give you an overview of all aspects of CityChlor we will present a partner and it's pilot test in each newsletter. In this first newsletter we want to start with Utrecht, a very dynamic city that has been the excellent host for the CityChlor startevent.

Utrecht is the fourth largest city of the Netherlands, with a population of over 300.000 people. Utrecht's central location in the Netherlands makes it an attractive city to live in. Therefore Utrecht is expanding, the number of passengers handled by Utrecht Central Station will pass in the next twenty years to some 100 million travellers per year. The redevelopment of this area is thus the perfect moment to remediate the soil and groundwater beneath the buildings.

Pilot Smart Lean & Intelligent Monitoring (SLIM) in Utrecht
The problem of the subsoil of Utrecht is that several pollutions from different sources are mixed due to time. In total 180 million m3 groundwater is polluted with VOC's. Due to the mixing of the pollutions a single case approach is impossible. The total area of the subsoil that is polluted is approximately 700 Ha. The total area of redevelopment within Utrecht is 90 Ha and is mainly developed by closed and historical buildings, with wooden floors etc.

In the Utrecht central station area the deeper groundwater will be remediated by a combination of ATES (Aquifer Thermal Heat Storage) and biological natural attenuation.

At present the boundaries of the aquifer system and its pollutions are not 100% defined. Neither are the exact positions of all source zones known or what the biological potential in natural conditions is.

The aim of the pilot is to define the present conditions in the subsoil, and after installation of ATES systems in the area to measure the influence of ATES on the geo-hydrological system and to measure and predict the effects on pollutions and geochemical conditions during an area-oriented remediation approach in the Utrecht central station area.

We will reach these goals by a combination of the following steps:

1. determine the biological potential in the Utrecht subsoil
2. select key parameters to be monitored with telemetry in time
3. flux measurements with diffusion samplers for VOC's
4. VOC sensor measurements
5. direct groundwater flow measurements
6. develop an extended geo-hydrological model and concentrate on the preferred groundwater streamlines

The results - practical application and financies - of the pilots during an area-oriented approach will be compared, with results of traditional monitoring for comparable pollutions.

Agenda
In the (near) future the following events will take place:

• 11 May - Presentation City of Utrecht about CityChlor during Dutch seminar "Europese kansen voor duurzaam gemeentebeleid"
• 24 June - French Regional Workshop
• 16 November - Transnational workshop CityChlor in Paris

Read more about

• Startevent
• Regional Workshop Flanders
• Regional Workshop the Netherlands
• Pilot test Utrecht

On our Citychlor website you can find dates of workshops and seminars or documents on relevant topics. But we like two-way-communication and therefore we are interested in hearing from you. Do you want to work with us on this innovative approach or do you have a question that isn't answered on our website? Please send us an e-mail and we will send the answer as soon as possible. You can also become a member of our discussiongroup on LinkedIn (you must have a -free- LinkedIn account).