Contaminated land, definitions

Other Approaches to Definition. There have been other working definitions in policy and practice, but specific legal definitions are of course only developed at the point at which a definition is needed to drive some particular statutory process. The definition will then be focussed on the particular needs of that process. The Part IIA contaminated land definition is quite deliberately restricted to the categories of site that Part IIA is intended to deal with—that is, sites that are currently presenting unacceptable risks to human health and the wider environment. The definition describes land where the contamination is not just present, but where it is, or could be, causing a particular problem. 

The DOE Industry Profiles provide developers, local authorities and anyone else interested in contaminated land, with information on the processes, materials and wastes associated with individual industries. They also provide information on the contamination that might be associated with specific industries, factors that affect the likely presence of contamination, the effect of mobility of contaminants and guidance on potential contaminants. They are not definitive studies but they introduce some of the technical considerations that need to be borne in mind at the start of an investigation for possible contamination. 

The Nature of Contaminated Land Problems—the Issue of Definition... 

There are several terms in use to describe land in need of remediation. Although the terms may be similar, there are fundamental differences. Figure 1 illustrates the relationships between these terms. The term derelict land, for example, refers to land so damaged by past activities that it is incapable of beneficial use without treatment .14 The statutory definition of contaminated land in the UK is given in Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (see Lowe and Lowe), that is ... 

Estimates of the extent of contaminated land in the United Kingdom are often based on different definitions and therefore need to be viewed cautiously. They are often based on available but incomplete sources and they may mix between definitions. Further, some industry sectors have better information on the impact of their activities than others, and this might be misconstrued to imply that these sectors have caused more contamination. It is hoped that the provisions of the new contaminated land regime in the UK will refine and improve our estimates. 

Contaminated land is defined for the purposes of Part IIA by section 78A(2). This definition is then amplified by the statutory guidance in Chapter A of Circular 2/2000, which covers both the manner in which individual local authorities determine whether any land meets this definition and the interpretation of the concepts of significant harm and the significant possibility of significant harm. (These are explored in more detail later in this chapter.)... 

Potential problems arising from land contamination have previously been addressed by UK law. For example, Section 161 of the Water Resources Act 1991 refers to situations where any poisonous, noxious or polluting matter or any solid waste matter is likely to enter. . . any controlled waters , which clearly includes the sense of one type of land contamination problem. The concept of contaminated land has also been referred to in UK law—for example, the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1994 gave the Urban Regeneration Agency (which became known as English Partnerships) specific powers to fund the reclamation of derelict, contaminated or un-used land. But Part IIA contains the first definition of contaminated land in UK law. 

The definition does not cover all land that contains some degree of contamination, which might be the man on the street s definition of contaminated land it also does not include all land that would fall within many of the technical descriptions of contaminated land, such as that proposed by the NATO Committee on Challenges to Modern Society (CCMS) pilot study on innovative remedial technologies. The general description land affected by contamination has been used by DETR and now others to put a name to the wider categories of land which are dealt with in UK policy or legislation in different ways. 

The second of the duties is to require remediation of any land identified as meeting the definition of contaminated land. This takes the form of a duty to serve a remediation notice14 unless particular circumstances apply. In effect, these circumstances, which are set out in detail in the legislation, fall into four categories ... 

The most immediately apparent area where this concept of risk drives the Part IIA system is in the core definition of contaminated land, set out in Section 78A... 

The Pollutant Linkage Concept. A further concept within the definition—the contaminant-pathway-receptor approach—is elaborated in the statutory guidance. This concept has, in recent years, come to represent the predominant intellectual framework for risk assessment in general20 21 and has underpinned the development of contaminated land technical thinking. Unless a particular receptor could be harmed, through a defined pathway, by an identified contaminant, then land cannot be considered to meet the definition of contaminated land. 

November 2000. This included the proposal to amend the definition of contaminated land to refer to significant pollution of controlled waters and the significant possibility of such pollution . As with the existing treatment of harm , statutory guidance would be issued on what is significant. 

Over and above the way that the definition of contaminated land implements a risk-based approach, the whole Part IIA process adopts a risk management approach, with explicit considerations of risk being the key drivers at each stage. 

Remediation versus Clean-up. Identification of any contaminated land triggers the next duty to secure remediation of the land. The definition of remediation in Part IIA makes clear that this, too, is a risk-based concept. 

This type of guidance is central to the regime, as it is used to shape the basic definition of contaminated land itself, to set out how local authorities should go about finding any such land, and to determine how liabilities should be divided up in cases where there are multiple liable parties according to the basic... 

In some cases, the information obtained from an inspection may lead the Local Authority to the conclusion that, whilst the land does not appear to be Contaminated Land on the basis of that information assessed on the balance of probabilities, it is still possible that the land is Contaminated Land. This might occur, for example, where the mean concentration of a contaminant in soil samples lies just below an appropriate guideline value for that contaminant. In cases of this kind, the Local Authority will need to consider whether to carry out further inspections or pursue other lines of enquiry to enable it either to discount the possibility that the land is Contaminated Land, or to conclude that the land does appear to be Contaminated Land. In the absence of any such further inspection or enquiry, the local authority will need to proceed to make its determination on the basis that it cannot be satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that the land falls within the statutory definition of Contaminated Land. ... 

We therefore, have at least two types of contaminated land. Land which is so heavily contaminated that it falls within the provisions of the statutory definition could be shown as of immediate interest and designated as CONTAMINATED LAND and land which has impaired development potential and could be designated as contaminated land . 

The Brockhaus Encyklopaedia, 19th Edition, provides the following definition Geotechnics is an umbrella term for those branches of civil engineering which deal with the constraction of nndergronnd stractures or those on the earth surface in which soils and rocks are key components of the stracture... Environmental protection measures such as contaimnent of landfills and contaminated land are included. .. Examples are foundations of all kind, slopes, tuimels, dams and dykes, landfills, canals. Theoretical fundamentals are soil mechanics and fluid mechanics... 

Petroleum, natural gas, and synthetic fuels are excluded from the definition of a hazardous substance, and the definitions of pollutants and contaminants under CERCLA this is known as the Petroleum Exclusion. Although the EPA has the authority to regulate the release or threatened release of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant, the release of petroleum, natural gas, and synthetic fuels from active or abandoned pits or other land disposal units is currently exempt from CERCLA. Such sites cannot use Superfund dollars for cleanup, nor can the EPA enforce an oil and gas operator, landowner, or other individual to clean up a release under CERCLA. Substances exempt include such materials as brine, crude oil, and refined products (i.e., gasoline and diesel fuel) and fractions. 

Through analysis of these classification maps for each pentad it is possible to define specific dates of ice events for the water body or its sub-regions. In some cases the definition of ice event dates could be tmcertain due to (a) data gaps, (b) ambiguous ice detection related to land contamination of the microwave signal, and... 

Assessing the extent of the problem has been hampered historically by a lack of clarity over definitions. New legislation will help clarify the extent of land that is so contaminated that it poses a risk of significant harm to human health or the pollution of controlled waters. 

This statutory definition is very strict and probably only relates to a small sub-set of all land that may have some contamination in it. Such lesser contamination may not be an immediate threat to the environment, as catered for... 

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