Emerging policy challenges on New SOil contaminants (ENSOr) Workshop

The 5th and festive edition of ENSOr taking place on 14 and 15th of March 2024 in Brussels. The event will be held in the context of the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU. This time, we set our sights on the challenges related to diffuse soil pollution with emerging contaminants.

Unlike point source pollution with a clear identifiable source of contamination, diffuse soil pollution is more widespread and originates from sources which are not always identified. As a result, tackling diffuse soil pollution requires a fit-for-purpose approach which may have similarities with the approach taken for point sources, but also important differences. With this ENSOr workshop we aim to tackle questions such as: What is the impact of diffuse soil pollution on the reuse of excavated soil, on ground water supplies and food safety? How do we monitor and assess the risks? Which policy is needed to tackle challenges such as diffuse pollution resulting from emissions from traffic, agricultural practices (e.g. fertilizers and plant protection products), discharges of WWTPs, floods, etc.?

With this 5th ENSOr workshop, we gather policymakers, researchers, soil remediation experts, risk assessors, and other interested stakeholders to share experiences and pave the way forward. 

Programme

There will be contributions on 5 selected topics: 

• Topic 1. Monitoring of diffuse soil pollution
• Topic 2. Risk assessment of diffuse soil pollution
• Topic 3. Policy challenges related to diffuse soil pollution
• Topic 4. Remediation and risk management of diffuse soil pollution
• Topic 5. Impact of diffuse soil pollution on the reuse of excavated soil
• Topic 6. Impact of diffuse soil pollution on water supplies

Save the date in your calendar. The detailed program will be published soon via this webpage.