The British Drilling Association Guidance 2024: What to Know Two Years On

The 2024 BDA guidance document, ‘Safe Intrusive Activities on Land Potentially Impacted by Contaminated Land (ICE)’, is an evolution of their previous guidance, with the core message of preventing occupational risk remaining the same as the previous 2008 version, just with updated measures and specifics to account for new legislation, advances in technology, and safer systems of work. It acts as guidance for assessing the potential occupational risks to ground investigation workers, off-site land user suppliers and offsite support staff from potentially harmful substances in the ground to safeguard their health.

The guidance is in place to help align ground investigations works with legislation and act as a reference guide to help assessors comply with standards. The 2024 BDA guidance is accepted by the HSE as the adopted industry guidance – it does not replace legislation, but following it allows for compliance with the regulations.

The guidance includes sections on legislation, competence, training and qualifications, managing HS&E, desk duties or PCI, site management, and the handling of potentially contaminated material or equipment.

Ground investigation workers and those in contact with the substances found in the ground face several risks as there is no way of knowing for certain what the ground consists of prior to the commencement of work.

The guidance is in place to protect the workforce when breaking ground where there may be exposure to unknown and potentially harmful substances. Workers can be exposed to toxic, mutagenic, tetragenic, carcinogenic and asthmagenic substances, and could lead to chronic, acute, sub-chronic, locally toxic or systematically toxic consequences and health concerns. The BDA guidance is in place to minimise the chances of exposure and contamination – all workers must wear PPE and have adequate training in using the PPE, alongside pollution prevention methods.

One of the most prominent updates is the implementation of measures for the re-classification of sites. All sites are labelled green, yellow or red, to indicate the level of risk in relation to the potential and known contamination at the sites, with the assessment made on a precautionary basis. With the 2024 revision, there is now guidance for the reclassification of sites if the condition and subsequent risks increase or decrease, for example moving from a yellow to red site if more hazardous materials are identified.

Determining the correct classification is important as it outlines the measures required to protect the workforce and laboratory technicians in contact with the samples.

SOCOTEC’s ground investigation practices are in line with the best practice described in the BDA guidance to manage potential risks from land potentially impacted by land contamination.  The safety of our workers is fundamental to the business, and we ensure all guidance is strictly followed to maintain a safe environment. For more information regarding SOCOTEC’s ground investigation services, please contact us.