Find at Solothurn landfill: radioactive substances discovered in city manure

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There is no immediate danger to the population, the Solothurn state chancellery announced on Thursday. Because waste from the watch industry was also stored in the city manure, radioactive material was to be expected. Until the late 1960s, radium was used in the manufacture of luminous paint for clocks.

The pollution caused by the weakly radioactive material is low, but makes the landfill clean-up process more difficult. Heavily contaminated materials should now be sorted and disposed of as radioactive waste, the canton said.

The PFAS also found are chemically, biologically and thermally very stable and hardly degradable substances. As there is not yet a general regulation for this in Switzerland, the Federal Environment Agency (FOEN) sets project-specific limit values ​​for disposal.

Landfills must be completely excavated

A pilot operation until spring 2024 should now show how the problem of the PFAS can be solved during the ongoing renovation. The costs of about 600,000 francs for the test operation are not included in the project cost of 120 million francs, as the state chancellery writes.

The expected additional costs must be determined by tests on the system and in the laboratory. It would be possible to interrupt the remediation work until it is clear how to deal with PFAS waste.

Between 1925 and 1976, Solothurn removed the waste that accumulated on the “Stadtdung” in the agricultural area in the west of the city. Because the three closed landfills pose an environmental hazard, they must be completely excavated and the material disposed of properly.

The owners are the Municipality of Solothurn and the Canton of Solothurn. The federal government and the canton each pay 40 percent of the renovation costs, the municipality 20 percent. (SDA)

Source:Blick