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Home | Contaminated land: Full picture is yet to emerge
Contaminated land: Full picture is yet to emerge
20 April 2009
On 17 February 2009, the Environment Agency published a report summarising progress made in dealing with contaminated land in England and Wales.
It is clear from the report that local authorities have a lot more investigative work to do to before a full picture can emerge of the true levels of contaminated land across the two countries.
It is also apparent that they have yet to exercise the full extent of their powers to recover remediation costs from polluters and/or current owners/occupiers of contaminated land.
The Environmental Protection Act 1990 classes as ‘contaminated land' any polluted land that appears to a local authority to be in such a condition that significant harm is being caused or there is a significant possibility of such harm being caused.
All local authorities are required to inspect their areas in order to identify any contaminated land in their regions. Each authority must then keep a public register of land that has been identified as contaminated land.
The local authority will determine the way in which the contaminated land has been, or will be, managed and remedied. If persons deemed responsible for the contamination can be identified, then the local authority will seek to recover any remediation costs from them to reimburse public funds.
The legislation setting out the contaminated land regime under the Environmental Protection Act was first introduced in 2000. The Environment Agency's report gives an overview of progress since 2000 until the end of March 2007.
Key findings include:
Identifying contaminated land
- Most local authorities estimate that so far they have inspected less than 10% of their regions for contaminated land.
- A total of 781 sites in England and Wales have been determined as contaminated land.
- Housing was the land use of over 90% of contaminated land identified, and usually such sites formed part of a larger group of properties, although each one was considered as a separate site of contaminated land. As a result, the number of contaminated locations across England and Wales could be significantly fewer than the figures suggest.
Paying for the remediation works
- Although persons liable to pay for remediation costs have been identified for 350 sites - they are only likely to pay to remediate 86 sites, as most sites are likely to be remediated using public funds. One major factor is because a number of contaminated land sites are publicly owned.
- Costs recovery had only been completed for five sites up to the end of March 2007.
- Local authorities reported that cost recovery had only started for a further 17 sites.
- Development of land through the planning system can be a cost-effective way of dealing with contaminated land, as those who benefit from the development usually pay to remediate it.
- 12 remediation notices had been served in England and Wales, and five had been appealed.
Causes of contaminated land
- Metal and metalloids, plus organic compounds were the most common pollutants identified.
- The energy and waste industries were reported as the largest sources of pollution in connection with contaminated land in England; whilst the deposit of ash was the most common cause of contamination in Wales.
Managing contaminated land
- Local authorities estimate that only around 10% of identified contaminated land is dealt with using regulation under the Environmental Protection Act.
- Around 90% of contaminated sites are being handled through the planning system by way of the remediation of the contaminated land as an initial stage of a development.
- Excavation and disposing of material off-site was the most common method of remediation.
Remedying contaminated land
- 149 sites had been remediated by the end of March 2007.
- Reported remediation costs to the end of March 2007 were about £20.5m for about one third of identified contaminated land.
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Jennifer Campbell
Solicitor
T: 03700 86 8738
I: +44 (0)118 965 8738
E: jennifer.campbell@shoosmiths.co.uk