Land contamination
“Land contamination” is the term used to describe land that is affected by spills, leaks and inappropriate storage, handling or disposal of hazardous materials.
Many areas of land in the UK are contaminated by past activities. For example, where chemicals have seeped into the land from previous industrial processes, or where previous owners have buried waste.
Your business activities could also cause land contamination, particularly if you handle hazardous substances such as chemicals or fuel.
If you want to develop a site or use the land for a new purpose you may have to clean up any land contamination as a condition of planning permission.
Cleaning up land contamination is called remediation. Remediation ensures that the land is no longer a risk to human health or the environment.
What you must do
England, Scotland and Wales
Your local council is responsible for identifying contaminated land.
You may be responsible for cleaning up contaminated land if:
- you caused or allowed any land to become contaminated, even if you do not own the land, eg by allowing contamination to spread
- you own or occupy the land, even if you did not cause the contamination, but only if whoever caused the contamination cannot be found.
In some cases contaminated land may be designated as a ‘special site’. Land that is contaminated with radioactivity or by a specific industrial activity is an example of a special site. Special sites are regulated by your environmental regulator.
Your local council or environmental regulator can serve you with a remediation notice. It will tell you what you must do to clean up the land and when you must carry the work out. A remediation notice can be served on more than one business. You can be fined if you do not comply with a remediation notice.
You can remediate contaminated land voluntarily and agree a schedule with your local council or environmental regulator.
Contact your environmental regulator
Contact your local council
For further information see our contaminated land guidance.
If you cause serious land contamination that affects protected species or habitats, or has an adverse effect on human health, this can be classed as environmental damage.
You will be liable for clean-up costs if you cause environmental damage.
Contaminated land - environmental damage
Comply with your permit conditions
You can be liable for remediation of land if you cause land contamination by failing to comply with the terms of permits and authorisations such as your environmental permit or pollution prevention and control (PPC) permit. Your environmental regulator can issue you with an enforcement notice to clean up the contamination. You can be fined if you do not comply with an enforcement notice.
For further information, see our permitting guidance.
Environmental permits
Pollution prevention and control permits
Northern Ireland
Contaminated land regulations are not yet in force in Northern Ireland.
However, you may still be liable for the remediation of land contamination if you do not comply with other regulations. This includes breaking the terms of your PPC permit. You will also be liable if the contamination you cause is serious enough to be classed as environmental damage.
Pollution prevention and control permits
Contaminated land - environmental damage
Good practice
Check your site history
Research the history of your site and the activities carried out on it. Investigate any land that could be contaminated. If you can identify any previous owners or occupiers who have caused land contamination you may be able to avoid paying for remediation of land contamination that was not caused by you.
Avoid causing land contamination
Regularly inspect and maintain all plant, pipework and other infrastructure. Check for damage, leaks and overflows. Repair any damage immediately.
Keep materials that could contaminate land separate from other materials at all times.
Store materials that could contaminate land in suitable, clearly labelled containers, such as drums or intermediate bulk containers (IBCs).
Supervise all refuelling operations and only refuel in a contained and impermeable area away from watercourses or surface water drains. Label tanks with contents and storage capacity and instructions on how to measure the amount in the tank.
Contain spills and leaks
Store all fuels and chemicals where any spills will be contained. This should be within an impermeable bund or secondary containment system (SCS).
The SCS or bund should be able to contain at least 110% of the volume of the largest tank or 25% of the total volume of all the tanks, whichever is greater.
Oil storage
Chemical storage
Keep absorbent materials and other containment equipment close to where you might need them. Ensure that they are suitable for the type and quantity of fuel, oil and chemicals you store and use on site. Ensure that your staff know where they are and how to use them properly.
Have a pollution incident response procedure for dealing with spills and use it with your drainage plan. Ensure that all staff on site know about the procedure and how to put it into practice.
PPG 21 Pollution incident response planning (Adobe PDF – 318KB)
Report incidents as soon as they happen to the UK-wide pollution incident hotline on 0800 80 70 60.
