“…Water contamination surveys continue to be conducted separately, leading to a functional fragmentation of the contamination despite the explicit risk of contaminated water also acting as a mobile element and threatening nearby drinking wells and potentially the entire Yarqon River watershed (see Shlomo and Marom, 2019;Marom and Shlomo, 2022). This has remained the case even though MEP experts argue that enacting water as a distinct contaminant during the purification process is likely to fail, due to its relation to other water technologies, such as desalination (and other forms of water, such as seawater), which offer more cost-effective alternatives:…”
Section: Placing the Imi Brownfield Sites In Contextmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…As reported by an environmental expert advising the government at the Ta'as‐HaSharon site, this separation takes place at an institutional level:Because the water authorities do not belong to the Ministry of Environmental Protection but to the Ministry of Energy, they are not represented in any of the planning committees and therefore they conduct their own contamination surveys. We constantly pushed for them to be included because the information about water contamination and contaminated wells was missing (interview, 3 November 2020).Water contamination surveys continue to be conducted separately, leading to a functional fragmentation of the contamination despite the explicit risk of contaminated water also acting as a mobile element and threatening nearby drinking wells and potentially the entire Yarqon River watershed (see Shlomo and Marom, 2019; Marom and Shlomo, 2022). This has remained the case even though MEP experts argue that enacting water as a distinct contaminant during the purification process is likely to fail, due to its relation to other water technologies, such as desalination (and other forms of water, such as seawater), which offer more cost‐effective alternatives:The decontamination of contaminated groundwater presents a significant challenge, and there is no easy solution to this problem.…”
Section: Analysis: the Multiple Enactments Of Contamination In Ta'as ...mentioning
The remediation and redevelopment of industrially contaminated land are complex challenges for urban regions worldwide. Yet the literature on urban brownfields mostly addresses this as a technical problem through dichotomic and anthropocentric terms, contrasting the passive and negative role of the contamination as a toxic entity in the ground with the active and positive roles assigned to human actors such as planners, developers and communities. This article contests this prevalent view by tracing in detail debates concerning the remediation of three highly contaminated military‐industrial brownfield sites in the Tel Aviv metropolitan region. Drawing on notions of ontological multiplicity and enactment from science and technology studies and on qualitative analysis of a vast database of planning protocols and court hearings alongside interviews with key stakeholders, we uncover how contamination is enacted in multiple ways as mobile/immobile, unified/fragmented, remediable/irremediable. Furthermore, following one of our field's inherent controversies—whether to fully map the contamination prior to planning the sites—the article highlights the attempts to regulate this multiplicity and replace it with a single coherent contamination. By acknowledging the multiple enactments of contamination, our approach offers a more nuanced understanding that could help stakeholders rethink the remediation and redevelopment of urban brownfields beyond simplistic technical solutions or neoliberal policy imperatives.
“…Water contamination surveys continue to be conducted separately, leading to a functional fragmentation of the contamination despite the explicit risk of contaminated water also acting as a mobile element and threatening nearby drinking wells and potentially the entire Yarqon River watershed (see Shlomo and Marom, 2019;Marom and Shlomo, 2022). This has remained the case even though MEP experts argue that enacting water as a distinct contaminant during the purification process is likely to fail, due to its relation to other water technologies, such as desalination (and other forms of water, such as seawater), which offer more cost-effective alternatives:…”
Section: Placing the Imi Brownfield Sites In Contextmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…As reported by an environmental expert advising the government at the Ta'as‐HaSharon site, this separation takes place at an institutional level:Because the water authorities do not belong to the Ministry of Environmental Protection but to the Ministry of Energy, they are not represented in any of the planning committees and therefore they conduct their own contamination surveys. We constantly pushed for them to be included because the information about water contamination and contaminated wells was missing (interview, 3 November 2020).Water contamination surveys continue to be conducted separately, leading to a functional fragmentation of the contamination despite the explicit risk of contaminated water also acting as a mobile element and threatening nearby drinking wells and potentially the entire Yarqon River watershed (see Shlomo and Marom, 2019; Marom and Shlomo, 2022). This has remained the case even though MEP experts argue that enacting water as a distinct contaminant during the purification process is likely to fail, due to its relation to other water technologies, such as desalination (and other forms of water, such as seawater), which offer more cost‐effective alternatives:The decontamination of contaminated groundwater presents a significant challenge, and there is no easy solution to this problem.…”
Section: Analysis: the Multiple Enactments Of Contamination In Ta'as ...mentioning
The remediation and redevelopment of industrially contaminated land are complex challenges for urban regions worldwide. Yet the literature on urban brownfields mostly addresses this as a technical problem through dichotomic and anthropocentric terms, contrasting the passive and negative role of the contamination as a toxic entity in the ground with the active and positive roles assigned to human actors such as planners, developers and communities. This article contests this prevalent view by tracing in detail debates concerning the remediation of three highly contaminated military‐industrial brownfield sites in the Tel Aviv metropolitan region. Drawing on notions of ontological multiplicity and enactment from science and technology studies and on qualitative analysis of a vast database of planning protocols and court hearings alongside interviews with key stakeholders, we uncover how contamination is enacted in multiple ways as mobile/immobile, unified/fragmented, remediable/irremediable. Furthermore, following one of our field's inherent controversies—whether to fully map the contamination prior to planning the sites—the article highlights the attempts to regulate this multiplicity and replace it with a single coherent contamination. By acknowledging the multiple enactments of contamination, our approach offers a more nuanced understanding that could help stakeholders rethink the remediation and redevelopment of urban brownfields beyond simplistic technical solutions or neoliberal policy imperatives.
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