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Contaminated Land: What can I do with it?

Right, so you've found some contaminated land you're interested in, or maybe you already own the land and found out that it's contaminated, either way…

Contaminated Land: What can I do with it?

Right, so you’ve found some contaminated land you’re interested in, or maybe you already own the land and found out that it’s contaminated, either way (or of course for other reasons) you want to know what contaminated land means and what you can do with it.  I’m assuming you’ve already found out if the contamination is a problem (If not then try this blog post here).

If the local regulator (Council / Environmental Agency) has been in contact with you about issues arising from your contaminated land then you’ll know you need to clean up the site. That should mean that you need to reduce / remove contamination in order to remove the identified risks.  A remediation options appraisal may be useful (What’s one of those you ask?  Read more here)

If the above doesn’t apply then your options revolve around what you want to do with the contaminated land.  The level of clean up depends almost entirely on the end-use of the land.  The less impact the land can have on the end-use, the lower the level of clean-up required.  A couple of simplified examples- develop land as an allotment where people dig in the soil and consume vegetables etc which have been grown in the soils, chances are you’ll have low (or ‘difficult’ in other words) target levels, develop as a car park where soils are sealed beneath a barrier, chances are you’ll have high target levels which would be expected to be easier to achieve than those for an allotment.

I hope this helps in the decision making when either deciding on development plans, or decided which site to buy / how contaminated land influences the price of your land.  As always we love to chat so feel free to e-mail us (info@soilutions.co.uk) or phone us on 0131 538 8456 if you have any questions.

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2021

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