Soil is one of the most important natural resources of our planet: it underpins 90% of all human food, fibre and fuel production, and performs many other vital functions such as contributing to biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation, and climate adaptation of ecosystems. Soil also plays a vital role in the storage, filtration and transformation of various substances, thereby controlling key natural life cycles. Furthermore, soil has a role as a habitat and gene pool, and also serves as a platform for human activities, landscape and heritage.
Industry is a major contributor to soil contamination. The EEA report Soil Contamination widespread in Europe (EEA) shows that local soil contamination in 2011 was estimated at 2.5 million potentially contaminated sites across Europe, of which about 45% have been identified to date. About one third of an estimated total of 342,000 contaminated sites have already been identified and about 15% of these 342,000 sites have been remediated. The EEA report reveals that managing contaminated land in Europe costs an estimated € 6.5 billion per year. Much of this is paid by companies, but the public is also paying a high price. The largest cause of soil contamination is poor waste management, so preventing waste in the first place could reduce the burden to society. Overall, production sectors contribute more to local soil contamination than service sectors, while mining activities are important sources of soil contamination in some countries. In the production sector, metal industries are reported as the most polluting, whereas the textile, leather, wood and paper industries are minor contributors to local soil contamination. The most frequent contaminants are mineral oils and heavy metals.
The amount of pollutants discharged to soil (above the reporting thresholds) and reported by the European operators are available through the EEA Industrial Emissions Portal (see tab “land releases”). Those are reported as “accidental releases”.
The IED is to date the only instrument which includes soil protection-related requirements at EU level, notably through:
- the requirement to elaborate a ‘baseline report’ (Art 12.e), existing since the IED 1.0, specifically addressing the state of the soil quality of the industrial site and serving as a reference baseline for soil protection and site remediation actions.
- emission limit values and other appropriate requirements to protect the soil and groundwater and monitoring requirements (IED Art 14) are set, notably the obligation to set appropriate measures to prevent emissions to soil and regular surveillance of those measures to avoid leaks, spills, incidents or accidents occurring during the use of equipment and during storage.
- The IED 2.0 has reduced slightly the frequency of periodic monitoring to be carried out at least once every 9 years for soil.
Art 22(2) of the IED requires this report to be submitted to the permitting authority “whenever the activity involves the use, production or release of relevant hazardous substances and having regard to the possibility of soil and groundwater contamination at the site.” There is quite a level of subjectivity involved in relation to what a “relevant” substance is, and around what constitutes a “possibility” of soil or groundwater contamination.
The European Commission’s guidance on how to draw up a baseline report is not endorsed by the EEB since it provides too much flexibility for operators to circumvent an in-depth assessment and avoid remediation obligations.
So far the soil protection requirements in BAT-C are very poor to absent: some BAT-C aimed specifically at soil protection have been set in the CAK BREF (mainly linked to decommissioning of mercury cells). A BAT conclusion for physico-chemical treatment of excavated contaminated soil e.g. thermal treatment or water washing is set in the WT BREF, however the European Commission decided to exclude in situ contaminated soil, contrary to request by Denmark and Belgium, supported by the EEB. Techniques to decontaminate soil in situ are therefore not addressed anywhere. The STS BREF, involve a high number of hazardous pollutants, notably for wood preservation, Ireland, supported by the EEB, proposed to set BAT on soil protection / decontamination in this BREF. Again, this was opposed by EU-BRITE, only limiting requirements to prevent future contaminations. The Production of Wood-Based Panels (WBP) BREF is an exception: some BAT on soil protection have been set, such as BAT2 selection and storage of chemicals, BAT 5 (containment systems),
Further information:
- Please check the relevant EU BREF sections for more sector specific soil protection aspects, notably for the MIN BREF where post closure phase is very relevant.
- EEA soil contamination reports (last update in 2021)
- European Commission guidelines on IED baseline report.