We, or the Environment Agency will decide if land is contaminated. We have the primary regulatory role and the Environment Agency will determine “special sites”.
We have a legal duty under Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to identify land that presents an unacceptable risk to human health or the environment and ensure that those who are responsible for the contamination clean it up. Our Contaminated Land Inspection Strategy is currently being reviewed and sets out how we deal with potentially contaminated land. When the strategy has been completed it will be available to read.
Remediation of land, with a historic industrial use, via the planning system is the Government’s preferred option, allowing the redeveloper to pay for the cost of such.
The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) provides statutory guidance on how local authorities should implement the regime on contaminated land (Part IIA), including how they should go about deciding whether land is contaminated land in the legal sense of the term.
When we investigate contaminated land we follow guidance set out by DEFRA using the Source, Pathway and Receptor principle. All three of the elements must be present for the site to be legally defined contaminated land:
- The source is the contaminant which is likely to cause harm to people or the environment.
- A pathway is a way in which the contaminant can reach a receptor.
- The receptor is the person or environment that could be harmed.
