Strengthening Contaminated Soil Monitoring in Vietnam
AECEN Twinning Partnership: Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of
Vietnam and Ministry of Environment of Korea
Regional Consultation Workshop, 29 – 30 November 2011, Hanoi, Vietnam
Assessment of Vietnam’s Policy and
Legal Framework on Contaminated
Soil Monitoring
Outline

•
•
•
Assessment of policy & framework for contaminated soil
monitoring in Vietnam:
Quick analysis & assessment of the existing legal documents
Implementation efforts for issues related to contaminated soil
remediation and management
Major challenges, gaps

Technical guideline of contaminated soil monitoring

Recommendations for future collaborations (Office 33,
AECEN, KMOE and other relevant organizations)
Introduction: Environmental issues
related to soil contamination in Vietnam

Open landfill dumping sites in Asian developing countries
including Vietnam: potential sources of dioxins and other
persistent organic pollutants (POPs), heavy metals.

Agent Orange/Dioxin from former US Army Bases during
US-Vietnam War: heavy dioxin contamination in soils,
sediment, biota & human.

POPs pesticides & their stockpiles: widespread
contamination throughout the country
Open landfill dumping sites for municipal wastes in major
cities from Asian developing countries including Vietnam
- Uncontrolled burning of wastes (burning by low temperature & waste pickers
- Located near human habitats
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Country
Quezon,
Philippines
Phnom Penh,
Cambodia
Chennai, India
Chennai, India
Hanoi, Vietnam
Hochiminh,
Vietnam
Area
(ha)
Capacity
(ton/day)
23
200
3
200
140
1300
5
1360
30
4000
Dioxin residues in soils from dumping sites in Asian
countries exceeds environmental guideline values
TEQ concentration (pg/g dry wt.)
10000
1000
Source: Minh et al. (2003). Environ. Sci. Technol. 37, 1493
(3) 1000 pg TEQ/g dry wt: Japanese Standard
and ATSDR, VN standard
(2) 250 pg TEQ/g dry wt: Japanese Government
100
(1) 50 pg TEQ/g dry wt: ATSDR
10
1
0.1
0.01
(1) ATSDR for bioavailability, ingestion
rates, ect.
(2) Japanese Government, for continuous
monitoring necessity
(3) Japanese Standard and ATSDR
guidelines for stronger action
& research on exposure and health
studies
ATSDR:
Agency for Toxic Substances
and Disease Registry
Heavy dioxin contamination in soils, sediment,
biota & human from Agent Orange/Dioxin hotspots
TEQ Concentration (pg/g dry wt)
1000000
100000
10000
1000
100
10
1
Phu Cat, 2008
Bien Hoa, 2008
Da Nang, 2010
POPs pesticides: elevated contamination
of DDT
Sources: Minh et al. 2008. Rev. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 193, 213-285
PCBs and DDT residues in soils from different regions
in the world
South Korea, urban soil
Vietnam, Hanoi, rural soil
Vietnam, Hochiminh, rural soil
Vietnam, Hanoi, dumping site soil
Vietnam, Hochiminh, dumping site soil
Cambodia, rural soil
Cambodia, dumping site soil
India, rural soil
India, dumping site soil
Ireland, urban soil
Russia, agricultural soil
Slovak Republic, waste site soil
United States, general soil
United States (Alabama), agricultural soil
Argentina, agricultural soil
Egypt, urban soil
0.01
PCBs
DDTs
0.1
1
10
100
Concentration (ng/g dry wt)
1000
Introduction

Soil contamination remediation and management is one of
priorities of Vietnamese Government
Examples of major issues related to soil contamination
Contaminated soil/sediment
in Agent Orange/Dioxin
at hotspots: former US Airbases,
Bien Hoa, Da Nang & Phu Cat
POPs pesticides stockpiles: old
storages & sites including
contaminated soils: throughout
the countries
MONRE-KMOE Twinning partnership
USAID
ECO-Asia Project
Asian Environmental Compliance & Enforcement Network (AECEN):
16 Asian Countries including Vietnam
Office 33, MONRE
Technical exchange
Korea Ministry
of Environment (KMOE)
Target training
Strengthen policy & practices on
soil contamination monitoring
Objectives & Outputs
* Partnership:
-
Promote transfer of best practices & experiences from Korea to
Vietnam related to soil contamination monitoring & management
-
Identify gaps on existing regulations related to contaminated soil
monitoring & management in Vietnam & develop recommendations
to strengthen the regulations & soil monitoring practices
* Outputs:
-
Rapid assessment report on legal framework related to contaminated
soil monitoring & management in Vietnam
-
Recommendations of contaminated soil monitoring guidelines for
Vietnam
-
Capacity strengthening of issues related to contaminated soil
monitoring and management (criteria, parameters for contaminated
soil, procedures for establish standards & regulations, legal
framework for contaminated sites monitoring and management)
Review of legal documents related to soil
contamination monitoring &
management in Vietnam
Legal documents: law, regulations, standards
Law: Law on Environmental Protection
Provisions: Environmental standards, environ. monitoring
programs, reports on status of the environment,
environmental protection in agricultural production
Legal documents from
Governmental level
Legal documents from
ministerial level
- Political bureau
- Ministry of Natural Resources &
Environment (MONRE)
- Ministry of Science & Technology
(MOST)
- Ministry of Agriculture & Rural
Development (MARD)
- Prime Minister
Governmental level
General
environmental
protection
issues
Decision No. 16/2007/QD-TTg
Overall national planning of monitoring network
for natural resources & environment
Resolution No.41-NQ/TW, 2004 environmental protection
in industrialization & modernization in Vietnam
National strategy on environ. protection until 2010 &
vision towards 2020, issued in 2003
Decision No. 64/2003/QD-TTg
Plan for thoroughly treatment of the establishments
causing serious environ. contamination
Specific
issues for environ.
treatment/remediation,
chemical management
Instruction No. 17/2008/CT-TTg
Urgent measures, institutional roles & respon. of ministries
to speed up the thorough treatment of the establishments
causing serious environ. contamination
Decision No. 67/2004/QD-TTg
Implementation Plan for remediation of problems caused
by toxic chemicals used by the American Army during the War
Decision No. 1946/2010/QD-TTg
Approval of the treatment & prevention plan for environ. pollution
caused pesticide stockpiles
Decision No. 184/2006/QD-TTg
Approval of the NIP for Stockholm Convention on POPs
Ministerial level
Ministry of Natural Resources & Environment (MONRE):
03 National : - threshold level of 5 heavy metals in soil
technical
- threshold level of 39 pesticides in soil
regulations
- threshold of hazardous wastes
02 circulars:
- Regulation on economic & technical norm
for investigation & assessment of soil quality
(Circular No. 28/2010/TT-BTNMT)
- Regulations on procedure of soil monitoring
techniques (Circular No.33/2011/TT-BTNMT)
01 decision:
- Launching program on treatment &
prevention plan for environ. pollution caused
by pesticide stockpiles
(Decision No. 2357/QD-BTNMT, 2010)
Ministerial level
Ministry of Science & Technology (MOST)
02 standards: classification of soil
pollutants by chemicals, thresholds
values of 5 heavy metals, 39
pesticides, & dioxins in soils from
heavily contaminated hotspots

13 technical
standards (TCVN)
02 standard: terminology on soil
quality
05 standards: different issues for
soil sampling
04 standards: procedures for
determination of various parameters
in soils: heavy metals, PCBs, PAHs,
chlorinated & phosphorous
pesticides
Ministerial level
Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development (MARD)

02 Circulars:
-
Regulations on management of plant protection
chemicals, including verification of quality & residues of
plant protection chemicals
-
List of plant protection chemicals that are allowable,
restricted and prohibited to use in Vietnam
Hierarchy of legal documents on environmental protection &
management including those related to soil contamination
Resolution No.41-NQ/TW, 2004 environmental protection
in industrialization & modernization in Vietnam
National strategy on environ. protection until 2010 &
vision towards 2020, issued in 2003
Decision No. 16/2007/QD-TTg
Overall national planning of monitoring
network for natural resources & environment
Decision No. 184/2006/QD-TTg
Approval of the NIP for Stockholm
Convention on POPs
Decision No. 1946/2010/QD-TTg
Approval of the treatment & prevention
plan for environ. pollution
caused pesticide stockpiles
Decision No. 2357/QD-BTNMT, 2010
Launching Program on treatment & prevention
for environ. pollution caused by pesticides
stockpiles during 2010-2015
Decision No. 67/2004/QD-TTg
Implementation Plan for remediation
of problems caused by toxic chemicals
used by the American Army during the War
Decision No. 64/2003/QD-TTg
Plan for thoroughly treatment of the
establishments causing serious
environ. contamination
Instruction No. 17/2008/CT-TTg
Urgent measures, to speed up the
thorough treatment of the establishments
causing serious environ. contamination
Analysis & assessment
Issues need to address/discuss

Power, effectiveness of the legal documents: Do they have
enough legal power to cover most important issues related to
environmental protection including soil contamination? Gaps,
overlapping?

Technical aspects: technical regulations and standards: Are they
technically enough to cover relevant issues? And do they have
good topicality, technical quality and timely update?

National capability for implementation of the legal regulations and
implementation effectiveness: Do governmental & national
agencies/institutions have enough capability to implement the
regulations and how effective it is?
Power & effectiveness of the legal documents

Complicated legal system, overlapping in
functions/mandates of agencies

Change and update often, sometimes due to low quality of
the drafting process, thus affect the implementation

When legal documents have good quality, the application
still remains weak due to lack of capacity of agencies,
financial resources, equipment & technology

Currently no comprehensive and systematic legal
framework or documents specifically designed for soil
contamination monitoring & management
Example
Some overlapping issues in Decisions regarding treatment plan of the
establishments causing serious environmental pollution & pesticide stockpiles
Decision No. 1946/2010/QD-TTg
Approval of the treatment & prevention
plan for environ. pollution
caused pesticide stockpiles
Decision No. 64/2003/QD-TTg
Plan for thoroughly treatment of
the establishments causing
serious environ. contamination
(including pesticide stockpiles)
Similar/overlapping issue:
treatment & prevention plan for
environ. pollution caused by
pesticide stockpiles
Decision No. 2357/QD-BTNMT, 2010
Launching Program on treatment &
prevention for environ. pollution caused
by pesticides stockpiles during 2010-2015
Instruction No. 17/2008/CT-TTg
Urgent measures, to speed up
the thorough treatment of the
establishments causing serious
environ. Contamination
(including
pesticide stockpiles)
Technical aspects: regulations & standards

Many technical standards (TCVN) are available for threshold levels of
chemicals in soils, soil sampling techniques, chemical analysis of
pollutants in soils, but information scattered and there is lack of
comprehensive and synchronous system of actions and solutions
specific for soil contamination monitoring

Some existing technical standards (TCVN) is outdated and need to be
updated, such as methods for determination of chemical parameters

Existing standards and regulations are still sometimes overlapped and
not complementary

Lack of technical regulations on threshold levels of important toxic
chemicals in soils such as POPs (PCBs, PAHs) and heavy metals (Hg,
Ni, Cr …)

Standards for dioxins are available in soils/sediments from heavily
contaminated hotspots, but not for general sites.

Lack of a synchronous system of criteria for monitoring, management
and remediation (such as level of concern & action level)
Example
MOST:
TCVN 5300:2009. Soil quality –
classification of soil polluted by
chemicals (MOST)
MONRE:
National technical regulations on threshold
of heavy metals and pesticides in soils:
QCVN 03:2008 & QCVN15:2008/BTNMT
Similar content:
threshold levels of 5 heavy metals &
39 pesticides:
Gaps:
- Classification of soil polluted by chemicals
only based on levels of 5 heavy metals & 39 pesticides
- No other important chemical pollutants?
- Overlapping in function/mandate of issuing agencies
Example

Circular No.28/2010/TT-BTNMT: Regulation on the economic and
technical norm for investigation & assessment of soil quality.
-
Some regulations on technical aspects on investigations and
assessment of soil quality available: sampling techniques, physical,
pedologic and chemical parameters; but not comprehensive &
technically detailed, lack of clear objectives
-
On the other hand: very detailed economic & technical norm:
content of work, equipment and consumable materials: too much
details that give feeling unpractical to implement or even sometime
unnecessary
National capability for implementation of the legal
regulations and implementation effectiveness



Lack of technical expertise & capacities, budget constrains are barrier for
effective implementation of legal requirements
Lack of proper awareness of the necessity of interested issues (soil
contamination monitoring)
Lack of effective coordination, unclear division of responsibility and
conflicting mandates
Example:
Decision No. 64/2003/QD-TTg
Plan for thoroughly treatment of the
establishments causing serious
environ. contamination (including
pesticide stockpiles)
Due to slow and not quite effective implementation
Instruction No. 17/2008/CT-TTg
Urgent measures, to speed up the thorough
treatment of the establishments causing
serious environ. contamination (including
pesticide stockpiles)
Current situation of contaminated soil
monitoring & management in Vietnam
Results obtained for soil management in Vietnam
- Economic and regulative tools were established for protection of soil
environment: Strategies, circulars, laws, plans, decisions, guidelines …
focus on the following issues:
+ Management, collection & treatment of wastes, hazardous wastes
+ Sound management and effective use of chemicals, collection and
treatment of pesticides, treatment of obsolete pesticide stockpiles
+ Environmental protection of urban, industrial areas, trade villages
+ Management and control of pollution sources, establishments causing
environmental problems
+ Environmental impact assessment
+ Land use planning and some others including protection of soil
+ Economic norms for different issues related to wastewater and solid water,
fee for environmental protection in mining, manufacture, business, etc.
Key gaps & challenges
Lack:
a synchronous system
solutions & actions
Lack: consistent & consensus
among issuing authorities
Soil contamination monitoring
Lack: technical capability
Lack:
updated technical standards
for thresholds & procedures
Gaps in soil management in Vietnam
- Lack of specific and concrete regulations on soil management in
existing legal documents in Vietnam
- There is no strategic plan for environmental soil management in
Vietnam
+
How to have good management for each type of soil to mitigate
adverse impacts due to natural and anthropogenic factors
+
Appropriate measures to remediate degraded and
contaminated soil
+
How to deal with land/areas with serious soil contamination
- Currently no comprehensive and systematic legal framework or
documents specifically designed for contaminated soil monitoring &
management
Implementation efforts on issues related
to soil contamination monitoring &
remediation in Vietnam
National environmental monitoring network
established in 1994, comprising 03 soil
monitoring stations
Ministry of
Science, Tech &
Environment (former
MONRE & MOST)
31 chemical
parameters can
be analyzed in
soils
03 soil monitoring
stations: North,
central & south
North: 01 Ph.D., 3 Msc, 4 eng.
Central: 1 Ph.D., 3 Msc, 3 eng
South: 01 Ph.D., 01 Msc, 5 eng.
Ministry of
Agriculture & Rural
Development
(MARD)
Equipment:
-AAS, GC/MS, HPLC
- Sampling equipment
Two major issues: Agent Orange/dioxin at contaminated
hotspots & POPs pesticides stockpiles
Contaminated soil/sediment
in Agent Orange/Dioxin
at hotspots:
POPs pesticides stockpiles
Efforts to tackles issues
Legal documents:
-02 Decisions from Prime Minister
-National action plan for
environmental remediation drafted
Legal documents:
-01 Decisions from Prime Minister &
01 decision from MONRE
Actions:
-Monitoring programs (Ministry of
Defense, Office 33 & Inter.
Agencies, companies)
-Isolation, containment programs
of dioxin contaminated soils
-GEF-UNDP Project: environ.
Remediation of AO/dioxin
contaminated hotspots
Actions:
-Monitoring programs to identify
stockpiles (VEA, MONRE & research
institutes)
-Isolation, containment programs of
pesticides contaminated soils
-GEF-UNDP Project: Sound
management and disposal of POPs
pesticides stockpiles
Implementation effectiveness
AO/Dioxin:
-
Research and technology programs: Soil monitoring & remediation
from hotspots: Bien Hoa, Da Nang, Phu Cat airbases: MOD, Office 33,
10-80 Committee, International agencies, consulting companies
-
Reduction of dioxins levels in soils and other environmental media
POPs pesticides stockpiles:
-
Extensive surveys to identify more than 200 sites throughout the
countries: old storages and sites including contaminated soils
-
Chemical treatment and isolation of pesticide stockpiles in some
hotspots: Nghe An province
Technical guideline for contaminated
soil monitoring

General provisions
• Overall objectives
• Scope of application
• Definition and terminology

Criteria for contaminated soils
• Classification of soil
• Classification of contaminated soil

Technical guidelines for implementation of contaminated soil
monitoring
• General requirement for contaminated soil monitoring techniques
• Technical content of contaminated soil monitoring techniques
Technical guideline for contaminated
soil monitoring

General provision
-
Objectives, scope of application, definitions
Objectives: Detailed technical guidelines for procedure of monitoring
contaminated soil
Scope of application: similar to those applied for draft circular on
general soil monitoring procedure: state agencies in charge of
environmental management at national and sub-national levels,
environment monitoring stations and any entities and individuals
involved in soil monitoring and reporting monitoring data and results
to national and sub-national environment authorities.
Technical guideline for contaminated
soil monitoring
Criteria for contaminated soil
• Classification of soil: 5 land-use categories





Agriculture
Industry
Recreation and residential
Forestry
Commercial and service
• Classification of contaminated soil: based on frequency of
detection and contamination levels of 39 pesticides and 5
heavy metals



Heavily contaminated
Medially contaminated
Mildly contaminated
Technical guideline for contaminated
soil monitoring
Technical content of the guidelines for implementation of contaminated
soil monitoring
• Principle of site investigation
• Preparation for fieldwork and sampling
• Principle of collection of representative sample
• Sample handling and transport
• Procedure for decontamination
• Field QA/QC
• Laboratory analysis
• Sample handling in the laboratory
• Sample preparation/treatment methods/procedures
• Analytical methods
• Data reporting
Technical guideline for contaminated
soil monitoring
Principle & procedure
for site investigation
(survey)
Content of
guidelines for
contaminated
soil monitoring
Procedure for
preparation of fieldwork
and sampling
Procedure in the
laboratory: sample
preparation/treatment,
analytical methods
Data interpretation and
reporting
Recommendations for future collaborations
Tackle problems related
to contaminated
environment
Establish/develop national
framework/strategy for
contaminated land
management
Technical assistance &
investment for monitoring
and pilot
treatment/remediation of
contaminated environment
Future collaboration proposals
 Establish official guidance documents for monitoring of contaminated soil
 Contribution to the establishment of the overall national framework for
contaminated land management
 Creating comprehensive framework/strategy
 Capacity building for technical and management staffs for
land/contaminated site management: exchange training courses,
joint local and regional workshops, conferences, etc
 Development of technical assistance framework for monitoring of soil, water,
air contamination and pilots for treatment/remediation technology
 Monitoring of contamination: exchange trainings, field surveys
programs for monitoring of soil, water, air environment for important
parameters (heavy metals, POPs,
 Investments for pilot for treatment/remediation of contaminated site
hotspots of pollution (POPs pesticides & dioxin hotspots)
Thank you!