Regulation of Contaminated Soils in Spain - A New Legal Instrument (4 pp)

Abstract

Background, Aims and Scope

This paper presents the new Spanish regulation on contaminated soils and its scientific basis. The regulation offers a regulatory framework for establishing industrial activities which may result in soil contamination, and presents the methodology for setting the generic reference levels of organic pollutants.

Legal Framework

The Spanish regulation on contaminated soils is derived from the waste legislation and covers 101 industrial activities, as well as facilities handling significant amounts of hazardous chemicals (over 10,000 kg per year) or fuel (300,000 l fuel per year or storing 50,000 l fuel at any time). The regulatory framework includes initial declarations and a tiered system for selecting those soils requiring a proper site-specific risk assessment.

Scientific Basis

The regulation is risk based, and covers human and environmental risks. The human health risk assessment focuses on chemical analysis; the selection of relevant exposure routes is associated to the soil uses. The environmental risk assessment includes chemical analysis and direct toxicity testing, and covers three main ecological receptors: Soil organisms, associated aquatic systems and terrestrial vertebrates. Low-risk threshold concentrations are established as generic reference levels; if exceeded, a site-specific risk assessment is required. The detection of a very high level of acute toxicity of soil or leachates led to the declaration of the soil as contaminated due to the capacity for contaminating the adjacent areas.

Conclusion

Overall, the Spanish regulation offers a balance for combining regulatory needs, proper scientific basis and practicability. The use of European risk assessment protocols and the European legal framework would facilitate the pan-European extrapolation of this approach. The inclusion of direct toxicity testing as a legal method for classifying a soil as contaminated is considered a key element.