New Fair complex develops on 2 million sq m. area, mostly occupied by a large oil refinery.
The site was one of the most polluted areas of the Milan north-west.
The soil and ground water were contaminated by hydrocarbons (from light to heavy fractions), COCs
(Benzene, toluene, IsoPropilBenzene).
Site remediation was started on February 2001 and was completed in June 2003, while the first pavilions were being erected.
The remediation technologies used in the Rho - Pero area were tested to check their suitability to the site and to measure their effectiveness in treating the contamination substances.
The results of on-site laboratory tests demonstrated that the biological technologies were the most effective.
To allow the construction works of the New Milan Fair complex, the remediation project had to be accelerated.
It was required the planning and the execution of additional activities to the original ones, i.e. the digging of large trenches and use of non biological thermal desorption technologies to allow faster treatment of the terrain.
The remediation technologies
Biological techniques: Soil Vapor Extraction, Bioventing, Biosparging, Draining trenches
Non-Biological techniques: Thermal desorption
The remediation facts
4,5 million cubic metres of subsoil treated
30 Km of piping to connect the remediation systems
1,000 sampling wells drilled
50,000 chemical analysis made of the terrain
3,500 soil samples taken and analysed
30 million cubic metres of water treated
300,000 cubic metres of inert material demolished