Contributions of surface geophysics to the site investigation of former oil distribution terminals

The City of Edinburgh Council in conjunction with Lothian and Edinburgh Enterprise Limited (LEEL) are undertaking redevelopment of some 100 hectares of land in West Granton, Edinburgh, Scotland. The first phase of this Granton Development Project involves investigation and possible remediation of land formerly used as oil distribution terminals by Texaco (~6 hectares) and by Shell (~4 hectares). Figure 1 shows a plan of these areas with some historical details of the installations. At the demise of these terminals in the 1980's, the sites were supposedly cleared - all that remains visible are some hard standing in the former Shell site (which has received a certificate of remediation) and a small group of pipes emerging from the ground to stand approximately 0.5m high at one location in the former Texaco site. Both sites now have rough, mixed vegetation.