Element 9 – Monitoring, Measurement and Inspection
Following the completion of closure activities, monitoring (including measurement and inspections) is undertaken to document and evaluate the effectiveness of the closure activities at meeting agreed closure objectives and the success criteria.
Monitoring is carried out with a focus on structures and facilities that remain post-closure, and on areas where there is an expectation or risk of impacts. Post-closure monitoring programmes are often phased out over time.
Where there is a pathway to relinquishment of the site, post-closure monitoring provides the information needed to demonstrate that success criteria are being met.
Maintenance and management activities undertaken should be documented describing continuing activities, as well as providing historical site information for the responsible party to which the closed site may be transferred as part of the relinquishment process.
Common needs for monitoring include:
- Performance/success monitoring: to determine whether specific pre-set targets/criteria are being met/attained, typically the success with site success criteria
- Information gathering monitoring: to obtain baseline information to populate/augment the closure knowledge base, typically to obtain data to a greater resolution to calibrate numerical groundwater model
Monitoring programmes:
- A programme should mix with existing baseline and operational monitoring data, as well as traditional knowledge, to place the post-closure data within a longer-term context
- Operational monitoring programmes should be refined and optimised for post-closure monitoring
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Tool: Monitoring, Measurement and Inspections provides an overview of typical needs to be considered when developing programmes for closure and post-closure monitoring