Policy and administration of contaminated land within the European Union

✍ Scribed by Christie, Stella ;Teeuw, R. M.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 130 KB
• Volume: 10
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0961-0405
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0976(200001/02)10:1<24::aid-eet215>3.0.co;2-n

✦ Synopsis

Current responses to contaminated land across the European Union (EU) are multi-layered, with varying inputs at national, regional and local levels. Responses are dependent on the policy concerns, the political system and the physical features of each state.

Policy and legislation are the prerogatives of national governments. Remediation standards and guidelines on risk assessment tend to be set at national level. Most national governments also maintain contaminated land registers and provide some of the finance for remediation.

Regional authorities are the main policy implementors, with responsibilities for all aspects of contaminated land management. In federal nations, regions are often instigators of contaminated land policy.

Local authorities are frequently the first link in the identification of contaminated land sites and often have responsibilities to take emergency action. The day-to-day management and monitoring of contaminated land sites usually occurs at local authority level.

Belgium and the UK are anomalous in their contaminated land administration: all Belgian policy and legislation comes from the regions, and in the UK most implementation comes from local authorities.

Environment agencies are involved at all levels, in an advisory capacity or enforcing remediation standards. They are well placed to gauge the effectiveness of contaminated land policy in each EU nation (e.g., monitoring the numbers of contaminated sites and charting remediation actions). This has not yet happened, but should be encouraged, as it would highlight examples of 'best practice', which could then be encouraged by the EU.