Contaminated land basics

A site can only be formally identified as contaminated land if all 3 elements of the source-pathway-target pollutant linkage are present and valid. An example could be a child (target) who eats soil (pathway is ingestion) in the garden or the house that was built on the site of a lead works (source). If any of the elements are not present or valid, the land cannot be designated as contaminated land by enforcing authority, under the statutory definition.

However, note that for practitioners the actual or potential presence of contaminants will tend to raise the hazard profile of a site in commercial terms, in the absence of further information about the environmental risks, i.e. pollutant linkages on a site specific basis.

There are 5 classes of targets or receptors that the contaminated land guidance will consider for 'significant harm' or 'significant possibility' of significant harm being present, these are:

1. human beings;
2. ecological systems;
3. property in the form of crops, livestock, home-grown produce, owned or domesticated animals and wild animals subject to shooting or fishing rights;
4. property in the form of buildings;
5. controlled waters including surface waters (rivers, lakes, etc.), drinking water abstractions, and groundwater (as defined in section 104 of the Water Resources Act 1991), including aquifers.