The total amount of polluted soil on the site in the town of Kohtla-Järve is estimated at about 41,000 cubic meters, of which approximately 30,000 cubic meters have spread beyond the industrial land use limits.

Maarja Küttä, project manager for biodiversity and climate at the Environmental Investment Center (KIK), said: "In areas where the contamination does not exceed or only marginally exceeds industrial soil thresholds, it is not practical to excavate all the soil, as natural processes will gradually dilute the pollution."

The work, funded with €3.4 million from the EU Just Transition Fund (JTF), is required to be completed by next summer.

Pollution from the plant, built in the late 1960s in the Ahtme district, reaches a depth of about three and a half meters.

Kütta added: "The pollution here is highly hazardous. Contamination is unevenly spread across the area, but in many places, the concentrations of hazardous substances significantly exceed permissible limits. For example, regulations set a limit for petroleum products in industrial soil at 5,000 milligrams per kilogram of dry matter, but here there are pollution hotspots which have levels of 20,000, 30,000, and 50,000 milligrams. This is extremely hazardous, especially for groundwater, and contamination of this magnitude cannot be left in the soil."

Removing the petroleum products from the soil is complicated by the extent of the pollution only being an estimate. The final volume of work will only become clear in the course of the process. To better access the contamination zones, an old boiler house, which also sat on polluted ground, was demolished at the beginning of May.

This constitutes private land, owned by OÜ Coniery. Kütta said, but as to why the state is responsible, he said: "During the Soviet era, asphalt concrete plants were state-coordinated, which is why this area is now listed as a site of national significance in terms of residual pollution, and the Estonian state aims to eliminate these hazards. The polluters no longer exist, so the 'polluter pays' principle cannot be applied."

At the same time, the cleanup job can allow productive use of the area going forward.

"This area can be used for production activities; even now, certain amounts of fill materials are stored here. Making the residual pollution site safe will certainly promote business development and job creation," Kütta added.

Once excavated, the soil is transported to the EcoPro AS waste station in Kiviõli, around 20 kilometers away, where it gets sorted and cleaned.

The work is divided into two phases, with the first, current phase costing nearly €2.3 million.

This is not the first time the state has acted to deal with pollution on the site at Ahtme. Between 2009 and 2013, pollution concentrations found in small tanks containing hazardous residue and bitumen were removed from a semi-underground storage site.

While much of the worst of the ground pollution which the former Soviet occupiers of Estonia left behind as one of their main legacies, for instance aviation fuel pumped into the soil, has been put right, inevitably there are pockets of pollution which still require dealing with, especially in the industrialized Ida-Viru County. This region qualifies for JTF funding.

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