Managing contaminated sediment in a scenic river across a new town

A substantial quantity of contaminated sediment has been accumulated in the Shing Mun River adversely affecting its water quality and suppressing the development of a balanced ecology. This paper provides an overview of a study for tackling the problems created by the contaminated sediment, with a view to improving the environmental conditions of the river in terms of water quality, ecology, odour and visual appearance for meeting its intended secondary contact recreation use. Various options, including aeration, chemical treatment, in-situ bioremediation, dredging, etc have been considered and a bioremediation pilot trial was conducted. The arriving of the selected improvement strategy involving phased bioremediation and dredging was discussed.