Duties of Contaminated Land Officers
Part IIA of The Environmental Protection Act
1990 set up a new regime for dealing with the problems arising from
contaminated land. It placed new duties on the Local Authority, who
are the primary regulators for the regime, to inspect their area
for the purpose of identifying contaminated land. In order to
identify areas of concern, all land with a previous contaminative
use and other areas of concern such as known pollution incidents
are risk assessed and placed on a priority list and prioritised
with regard to their present use, past use and environmental
setting.
The sites on the list are then inspected in
order of priority in order to address the sites of greatest concern
first.
For sites that are investigated and found to
meet the legal definition of Contaminated Land the local authority
will:
- Establish who is responsible for the cost of remediating or
cleaning up the land to a condition that it is suitable for its
current use. Part IIA re-enforces the polluter pays principle and
anyone that caused or knowingly permitted the contaminating
substances to be in, on or under the land may be liable for the
cost of the remediation.
- Decide on the most appropriate remediation technique and ensure
that such remediation takes place by the serving of a remediation
notice if a voluntary agreement can not reached.
- Record certain information about any regulatory actions on a
contaminated land public register.
Cheshire East Contaminated Land Register
To view, please visit the Contaminated Land Register for Cheshire East
Borough Council. Alternatively, go to next page: Contaminated Land Strategy
