Technology

Different occurrences like oil fire and massive pollution like oil spillages will definitely result in massive contamination of the environment thereby compromising the land for ay profitable use. The Buncefield incident is one of similar incidents which resulted in not only massive contaminations on the environment, but also in excessive loss of money and investment. Following the fire, there are a number of issues that have emerged to do with environmental pollution and degradation. In order to have a site like this one redeveloped for any other use, there are a number of measures and steps that have to be applied. Therefore, this paper will present the Buncefield incident case study, giving some of the appropriate measures necessary in the reclamation of the site.

The Buncefield was an oil explosion in Britain which has since then been a lesson in the improvement of emergency operations and preparedness. From the time of the explosion, the Buncefield Incident has been posing a number of questions concerning the commercial advancements and developments around similar sites like the Buncefield (Webster, 2006, p. 28). The site of the depot has been known to have affected the surrounding environment in a number of ways. We will therefore look at the major facts behind the Buncefield Incident and how it can be redeveloped in the mitigation of the likely contaminated Buncefield land. Therefore, there are a number of steps that may be necessary to be adopted in the redevelopment of the land once the depot was closed completely.

A Summary of the Buncefield Incident
The Buncefield is an oil storage and oil transfer depot which is compromised of a large tank farm and it is occupied by three different companies. The three companies are United Kingdom Oil Pipelines Limited, West London Pipeline and Storage Limited, and Total UK Limited and Chevron Limited. The last two form the Hertfordshire Oil storage Limited (Regester  Larkin, 2008, p. 28). At Buncefield, a great inferno is what burned down the site through a series of massive explosions in the oil rich tank and pipes. This was on December 11, 2005 at the Terminal of Hertfordshire Oil Depot, which is a facility for oil storage located a short distance from M1 Motorway, in England (Webster, 2006, p. 30). The Hertfordshire Terminal had been among the largest storage facilities for oil and oil-based products in the entire United Kingdom. The storage capacity of the tank had a capacity of sixty million imperialgallons, an equivalence of 272,765,000litres of oil. During the incidence, the inferno was in a number of subsequent explosions. The biggest explosion at the terminal occurred just one minute after six in the morning near the 912 tank. This explosion resulted in further explosions that eventually burned down over twentylarge oil-storage tanks. Within the shortest time possible, the emergency teams announced the emergency exactly seven minutes later, and very instantly the fire fighting processes and efforts began immediately.

Later after fighting the fire, there were a number of suggestions which tried to give descriptions on the possible cause of the fire at Buncefield. The major cause behind this fire explosion was assumed to be as a result of air-fuel explosion which must have been of an unusual high intensity and strength (Webster, 2006, p. 29). The United Kingdom Geological Experts came immediately to monitor the developments of the event, and came up with information that the inferno and explosion must have reached about 2.4 by Ritcher Scale. The news being reported described that the fire incident was the biggest inferno which had occurred in Britain and in the entire European Peacetime since the year 1974. The Flixborough Disaster of 1974 was the greatest fire incident to have occurred.  The fire at Buncefield took a number of days to be fully extinguished. The final flames of the inferno had been fully extinguished in the afternoon of December 13, 2005. Having done everything in ensuring the entire flames had been extinguished it was quite unfortunate that one more storage tank re-ignited on the evening of same day. The fire-fighters had to leave the tank to burn down rather than putting any measure of extinguishing the fire.

Having the incident happen, the UK Health Protection Agency and the other relevant Disaster Incident Investigation Boards came out to provide adequate advice which would be used in preventing any other similar incident from occurring in the future days. The major need therefore would be to come up with the necessary safety measures which would be put in place on preventing fuel exit from storage tanks (Webster, 2006, p. 36). It would also be necessary to come up with necessary disaster management procedures which would improve preparedness, and that way fight any other similar occurrence. Since then there has been the need to ensure the necessary safety measures being put in place in preventing damage to the environment which was highly noted following this explosion. Since then, there have been the additions of more safety mechanisms and measures in preventing the formation of any flammable vapors from oil storage facilities, and also stop any pollutants which may adversely poison our environment.

Effects of the Incident on the Surrounding Area during and After the Incident 
It is very true that an incident of this intensity and nature will definitely result in excessive damage and pollution on the environment. During and after the explosion, there are a number of damages which must have been done on the surrounding area. From the immediate reports that were carried out, it was noted that the air had been contaminated to a very large degree and therefore it would take longer before resuming its normal freshness. During the time of the fire incident, it was reported that there was massive emission of explosive compounds which polluted the air in countries like France and beyond. There was also a massive modeling of plume after the excessive smoke that was generated during the time of the fire. Generally, much damage on the environment was done on air immediately as the explosion began. This is in consideration with some of the constituents in oil which can be extremely damaging on the quality of air.

Later after the explosion, the rivers deriving water from Buncefield have been reported to have acquired traces of the compounds following the oil leakages which occurred during the explosion. For instance, River Ver, since it receives all its water from the site, is known to have its water contaminated since it has its catchments at the site. In order to ensure that this water does not affect the users downstream, what has been done is that there has been the construction of balancing tanks which have been used in the provision of buffering solutions in the prevention of uncontrolled water surges from the river. Because of the pollution and damage on the water, since then the water of the river has been unable to support most of the organisms living in the water like fish among others, while at the same time making the water unsafe for drinking. The pollution that has been detected can be attributed to the petroleum products and the foams that had been used during fire fighting (Webster, 2006, p. 41).

Also, researches and monitoring projects were initiated in a radius of nine kilometres around the area in detection of the pollution that had occurred to the ground water. There was the drilling of bore-holes to determine the rates at which the water had been polluted. These studies have still been ongoing since the results they have been getting are still unreliable, and frequent sampling is what will eventually give them a final conclusion concerning the quality of the ground water in the areas surrounding the site (Regester  Larkin, 2008, p. 33). These measures have been highly advocated in order to ensure that people are informed on how to make use of the underground water, and any other thing associated with the surroundings of the Buncefield site.

In any kind of pollution, it would be incomplete if we do not talk about land. From the time of the explosion, it must be very true that a lot of fuel and oil products must have leaked and found their way on the land, and therefore polluting the soil by a big percentage (Webster, 2006, p. 43). Also, the fire-fighting foams and the reaction between the compounds used in extinguishing the fire, and the oil products at high fire temperatures must also have highly damaged the land. The initial findings from the studies done on the site proved that the surface soil layers, to about thirty centimetres had been contaminated by both the oil-based products and the products used in the fire-fighting operations (Regester  Larkin, 2008, p. 39). However, the first report indicated that there were very little pollution and presence of the pollutants below the 30-centimtre mark down the ground. From the laboratory analysis done following the explosion, it was reported that compounds like hydrocarbons, polycyclic materials, and aromatic hydrogen-carbon compounds, among others had been detected from the soil analyses.

Finally, the immediate onset of the inferno was quite hazardous and damaging on the environmental structures. The immediate explosion resulted in damaging the entire scenery since all the available plants gave into the flames, smoke and temperatures. This was recorded to even a radius of three kilometres from the site. The damage was done on vegetation, living organisms, and even on the quality of air. These pollution degrees have been a great concern and the reason all nations should ensure that the necessary mechanisms are incorporated in ensuring that a future similar incident does not occur. This is because pollution of that intensity will eventually end up compromising our environment, and result in global warming.

Redevelopment of the Site
If the Buncefield site were to be redeveloped into a residential property or for commercial purposes, there are a number of procedures and steps that are necessary in carrying out the operation. The key part before coming up with the property is to put the necessary tools which would ensure that the issues of contaminated land, air and water has been resolved so that the people who may find themselves in the area may not be affected by the impacts of the pollution. Before launching any property development activity on any piece of land that had been previously polluted like with the case of Buncefield, it is recommended that the developer takes into considerations the nature of the pollution, the degree of contamination, and the major resources that have been contaminated. These resources are both land and water. Once that has been identified, the next procedure is to come up with ways of mitigating the contamination so that the land can be useful for construction and asset development.

The survey of the site should therefore be the first procedure before any effort has been implemented in the development of the property. This survey will therefore be needed to address a number of issues and see to what extent has different elements of the site been polluted and contaminated following the explosion. For instance, there should be the drilling of a number of bore-holes around the surrounding to accurately determine the contamination percentages and the compounds present in the underground water. Once that has been established, the next thing will be to come up with the necessary measures which can be applied to clean the underground water into levels which can not be harmful to the user. Should the water be polluted to very big degrees, the necessary thing would be to look for ways of preventing out-filtration of the water to the surface (Regester  Larkin, 2008, p. 45). There will also be similar procedures for the air pollution, surface water contamination, and for land pollution. Once the percentages of contamination have been established, the next thing will be to put the necessary measures to mitigate the contamination.

With this site, the first important process will be to come up with geological investigative measures to note the amount of hydrocarbons and sulphur compounds in the soil. These compounds can be quite damaging once not addressed during asset development. After that, it is necessary to access the damage on the site and the immediate surroundings as a result of the degrading phenomenon. This will undertake to access the land, the damage done on the vegetation, and the drainage pattern of the land. Once all the areas that have been contaminated from the explosion, it would be necessary to design and maintain space networks which will be applied in restoring the natural dynamics which existed on the land before the inferno. After that, it would be necessary to plant trees which will help in carbon dioxide intakes from the air, and also change the vegetative patterns which had been damaged following the fire explosion. This will address issues of ecosystem and environmental integrity. After that, the next thing will be in addressing the issues of water. The developer will be required to come up with storm-water management strategic plan for the water in the site must have been highly polluted (Regester  Larkin, 2008, p. 63).

These strategies will involve the minimization of the impervious land on the site so that much water does not penetrate into the soil. There should also be increased mechanisms of improving water penetration on the recharge sites. This will ensure that the site is cleaned in the shortest possible time. There should also be the planting of trees which can absorb water with toxic hydrocarbon compounds from the soil. Another important plan suitable in the redevelopment of this site for residential purposes is to install a number of retention and detention facilities which have graduated control outlets. Another important strategy which can be utilized is by constructing balancing tanks which have over the years been used in the provision of buffering solutions in the prevention of uncontrolled water surges from the oil contaminated rivers.

There are some other procedures which can be necessary here in mitigating the site so that it can be useful for people living. This method is the use of soft engineering soil techniques which integrate both vegetative and soil-bank stabilization. The appropriate term use is bio-soil engineering and it will involve the construction of structures which ensures that the ground water at the site within a capacity with which natural bio-mechanisms can effectively replenish the soil and water in the contaminated site (Webster, 2006, p. 54). There will be intensive use of indigenous plants that require smaller water quantities since the water may not be available for the plants in the very beginning of the project. All the already stated water storm-over strategies will eventually result in cleaning of the water and land on the site.

In order to ensure that all things are in order, it would also be necessary to re-shape the land in a way which is convenient and attractive to the final user. During the construction processes, it would be greatly advised that the construction process does not in any way pollute the area, and this can be achieved by ensuring that no more oil spills from the construction machines and equipments (Regester  Larkin, 2008, p. 75). All these measures and steps will be effective in ensuring that the land has been mitigated in a way that enables further development of the site for residential or commercial purposes. This should therefore be assigned to an individual who is an expert and will be monitoring all the operations, implementations and performances of all the strategic plans put in place.

Conclusion
After the explosion, a number of findings were brought out from most of the investigations that were carried out at the Buncefield site immediately after the explosion, and for the following years. There was strong evidence that the soil had been contaminated with hydrocarbons which resulted from the fire-fighting foams and the oil spills but only to a depth of thirty centimetres. The air had been polluted to parts beyond the borders of United Kingdom like France (Webster, 2006, p. 60). Also, most of water, both surface and underground, gave signs of contamination from the hydrocarbon fuel products. Therefore, all the above mentioned mitigation operations can be effective should the site be needed for development of residential or public property.