Harm to Ecological Receptors

The non-human living organisms and ecological systems that are deemed to be relevant for assessment, and therefore worthy of protection, under the new regime are defined in the statutory guidance as follows  

The statutory guidance states that significant harm to one of the protected areas identified above consists of  

In addition, in the case of a protected location which is a European Site (or a candidate Special Area of Conservation or a potential Special Protection Area), harm which is incompatible with the favourable conservation status of natural habitats at that location or species typically found there.  

Taken together and put simply, this means that, in order for land to be designated as contaminated land on grounds of ecological impact, substantial adverse effects have to occur to either a protected area or to the long-term viability of a population of an important species within it, or there has to be a significant possibility that such impacts will occur at some point in the future. The process of assessing land in the context of these requirements is described below. 

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Assessing Whether Significant Harm to Ecological Receptors Is Occurring... 

According to the statutory guidance, an assessor can only consider that significant harm to ecological receptors is occurring where he/she ... 

Are ecological receptors currently exposed to site contaminants at levels capable of causing harm, or is future exposure likely ... 

HARM II considered the toxicity and quantity of the pollutants present, two exposure routes - surface and ground water, and human and ecological receptors. To obtain a significant score, a source, a pathway and a receptor all had to exist since this ensured that exposure was a possibility. 

Problem formulation. Within this process all available information about a contaminated site is collected including the nature of the contaminants and their sources, obvious effects and potential receptors as well as environmental recipients. Within this very first stage of the risk assessment procedure, an assessment endpoint has to be determined. Assessment endpoints are the expression of an environmental value (represented by an ecological entity) that is at risk, e.g. a distinct population that faces harm due to pollution. It has to be emphasised that toxicity-test endpoints or other measurement endpoints (in general, measured effects under test conditions) in most cases do not represent assessment endpoints (response of population or ecosystem in the field). Measurement endpoints should be representative for assessment endpoints or have a known relationship to the assessment endpoint allowing the extrapolation of data. 

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