Cleaning up contaminated land (Remediation)
What is remediation?
The process of cleaning up contaminated land is known as remediation. The aim of remediation is to remove significant pollution from land, either by reducing or removing the contamination source. This is to ensure that there is no significant harm to human health and no pollution to the environment.
Key responsibilities
Local authorities are responsible for identifying contaminated land and enforcing remediation. This can be done by:
agreeing remediation with the appropriate person/s who will issue a remediation statement
if no agreement is made, serving a remediation notice on the appropriate person/s
undertaking work and issuing a remediation statement, recovering costs from appropriate persons where possible
Some contaminated land will be designated by a local authority as a special site. For these sites, SEPA becomes the enforcing authority and will be responsible for securing remediation.
Appropriate persons
Any person who caused or knowingly permitted a substance to be in, on or under the land is responsible for remediation. Where such a person can’t be found, responsibility passes to the current owner or occupier of the land.
Anyone identified as responsible is known as an appropriate person.
If no appropriate persons can be found, the land becomes an orphan site. The enforcing authority then has powers to carry out remediation.
Read more about responsibilities in Part IIA.
What is the remediation process?
Remediation includes the assessment of the condition of the land, undertaking work to clean up the land, and monitoring the condition.
Contaminated land is remediated to address environmental risks, risks to users of the sites, as well as financial and legal liabilities.
There is no universal standard for remediation. Objectives are set for individual sites based on an assessment of the risks, which can vary widely from one site to another.
Chapter C: Statutory guidance on the remediation of contaminated land and Chapter D: Statutory guidance on exclusion from, and apportionment of, liability for remediation contain more information about the process of remediation.
Remediation schemes
Any remediation activity should be designed and planned to manage and minimise risks. Remediation activity has the potential to worsen contaminated land. Potential risks must be controlled so that the activity results in environmental improvement. This is usually set out in a remediation scheme.
Detailed project reports for different remedial techniques are available from CIRIA and CL:AIRE, as well as the Environment Agency.
Consultation
Prior to issuing an identification notice and remediation notice, the enforcing authority will enter a consultation process. They will discuss and negotiate with all relevant stakeholders in order to secure voluntary remediation where possible. The aim is to arrive at an agreement rather than serving a notice.
Waste
As part of the remediation process, if you intend to discard soil, groundwaters or the contaminants within it, then this becomes waste. Anyone disposing of waste, on site or off site, must follow waste management licensing requirements.
Anyone wishing to treat waste requires an authorisation depending on the remediation activity. A waste management mobile plant license is the best route.
For more information on treating waste, please see our EASR pages.
Dealing with waste soils
SEPA encourages sustainably managing contaminated soils. Read more here: