Management of soil contamination
It is a strategic goal of the OVAM to develop instruments for a sustainable and responsible management of soil contamination. This is necessary to give more legal security to problem owners and to stimulate them to manage the contamination on their properties in a responsable way. Other parties, like construction firms, should also be stimulated to act carefully when planning activities that may cause problems to other remediation works. For example drainage on building sites can attract a groundwater contamination from a nearby site. By the end of 2010, concepts of these instruments should be ready for further investigation or implementation.
To reach this goal, the OVAM conducted a study in which possible management instruments were investigated.
In the first phase of the study an inventory was made of existing problems and bottlenecks. These not only accounted for classical risks (human-toxicological and ecological), but also economical and societal impacts were considered. In a next phase these problems and bottlenecks were thorougly analysed and a brainstorm on possible solutions was held.
A significant number of proposed solutions also had an impact on other policy domains. Round-table-meetings were held with stakeholders to check the practicalities, the desirability, the possible impact, etc. of the conceptual scenario's. About ten ideas are taken to a next stage for further consideration. These include amongst others- the centralisation and digitalisation of all information related to soil contamination so that people can easily check the presence of soil contamination in the vicinity of their properties;
- the adaptation of the soil certificate so that it contains more information related to future risks and instruments and
- the enhancement of the interlinkages with other policy domains (f.e.spatial planning).