" The last 100 years have seen a massive increase in the wealth of this country and the wellbeing of its people, but focusing solely on economic growth risks ignoring the impact – both good and bad – on people and on the environment. Had we taken account of these links in our decision making, we might have reduced or avoided the costs such as contaminated land or social exclusion."
The Prime Minister, Right Honourable Tony Blair in his forward to "A better quality of life: A strategy for sustainable development in the UK"
Contaminated Land is a legacy of industrialisation and an archetypal example of our failure in the past to move towards sustainable development. Concerns range from its adverse effect on human health, water, ecosystems and property, to the issues of development and reuse of brownfield sites.
Successful governments have supported research and development in this field and contaminated land regulations have themselves been under development since the early 1990s. The Environmental Act 1995 inserted a new section (Part IIA) into the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Following consultation, on 14th July 2000, the Contaminated Land (Scotland) Regulations 2000 came into force.
The Moray Council have adopted a proactive approach to contaminated land and have published their Contaminated Land Inspection Strategy as well as introducing systems for the following; Planning Applications, Building Control, Property Enquiry Certificates, Sale of Council Houses and Sale of CouncilLand and Property. as well as site investigations.Contaminated Land is defined as "any land which appears to the local authority in whose area it is situated to be in such a condition, by reason of substances in, on or under the land that:
significant harm is being caused or there is a significant possibility of such harm being caused; or pollution of controlled
waters is being, or is likely to be caused."
More simply put, land is classed as contaminated when substances in, on or under the ground are impacting upon or potentially impacting upon human health or the environment. Contamination can either be a natural phenomenon, for example, naturally elevated levels of heavy metal etc or man-made, for example, chemical spillages etc.
This is a concern because we can be exposed to contaminants via inhalation of dust or gases, contact with soil or through the food grown in the soil. While the source of contamination may not be on or adjacent to your property there is still a risk because contaminants can migrate through soil or groundwater from surrounding sites.
The effects of contamination will depend on the type and amount of contaminant involved and in order to assess these levels an intrusive site investigation would be required. If the ground is found to be contaminated then action will need to be taken to decontaminate the area. This is known as remediation.