CEDA’s WG on Contaminants of Emerging Concern in Sediment is looking for more members.
This working group has got off to a good start. They had their first meeting online on 9th April, with their second meeting taking place, in person, at Deltares in Delft on 9th October.
In the first meeting, the members decided to change the name of the working group to “Contaminants of emerging concern in sediment” to align with EU jargon and agreed on the final TOR. You can find all the details here.
They are looking for some new members to join the working group, so if you are interested in contributing to this important topic, please contact Mieke van Loenen (miekevanloenen@dredging.org).
Contaminants of emerging concern in sediment are substances that might merit action by international frameworks (like OSPAR and HELCOM or the EU Frameworks like the Water and Waste Framework Directive) due to their persistency, liability to bioaccumulate and toxicity or other equivalent concern. In Europe, the Regulation on the registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemicals (REACH) is the main EU law to protect human health and the environment from the risks that can be posed by chemicals. This is done by better and earlier identification of the intrinsic properties of chemical substances and by taking measures. For dredging, disposal and beneficial use of sediments this means that substances of possible concern can impact sediment management, if not now, then in the foreseeable future.