Ecological Risk Assessment under the New Contaminated Land Regime

After many years of R D, the UK government has begun to launch details of the approach it requires for the assessment of land under the new contaminated land regime. This regime went live in April 2000, and it requires local authorities, in conjunction with the Environment Agency, to initiate the inspection and, if necessary, remediation of potentially polluted land. 

The essence of the regime is that land should be fit for purpose and that substances in, on or under land should not threaten human health or environmental resources such as groundwater and ecosystems. As a result, chemical pollutants on a site are only to be regarded as an issue if they are capable of causing harm to human health or the environment, or if they have already done so. The actual wording of the legislation states that land needs to be remediated if it  

As it is so central to any decision on clean-up, the process of assessing the existence of, and potential for, adverse effects from site-based contaminants is perhaps the most important aspect of the new regime. Depending on the results of this process, contaminant levels may be deemed acceptable for a site s current or 

Issues in Environmental Science and Technology No. 16 Assessment and Reclamation of Contaminated Land The Royal Society of Chemistry, 2001 

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Ecological Risk Assessment under the New Contaminated Land Regime... 

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