Contaminated Land Guidance

The guidance on this page is equally applicable to the development of land affected by contamination, via the planning process, via voluntary remediation actions or any measures undertaken under the forthcoming contaminated land regime.

The Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) seeks to promote good practice in assessing and managing the risks due to land contamination and recommend application of  the UK framework as laid out in the Model Procedures for the Management of Land Contamination (CLR11) 2004 (.PDF 1.83Mb), published by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Environment Agency.

A small selection of other guidance is available to download from this site, for full details and background visit the Environment Agency webpages or the DEFRA website.

Guidance on Risk Assessment

An update to the UK technical framework for human health risk assessment has been published by the Environment Agency and DEFRA comprising:

• Human Health Toxicological assessment of contaminants in soils (Science Report SC050021/SR2, January 2009)
• Updated Technical background to the CLEA Model (Science report SCO50021/SR3, January 2009),
• A revised CLEA model and handbook.

The previous guidance (CLR7-10 and the soil guideline values) has now been withdrawn and the new documents can be downloaded from the Environment Agency website.

• CLR11 framework(.PDF 1.8Mb)
• Remedial Targets Methodology Worksheet V 3.1(RTM)(.xls 844Kb) and User Manual(.PDF 803Kb)
• Guidance on the assessment and monitoring of natural attenuation of contaminants in groundwater(R & D 95)(.PDF 5.43Mb)

DOE Profiles

The DOE Industry profiles www.environment-agency.gov.uk/research/planning/33708.aspx provide developers, local authorities and others interested in contaminated land, with information on the process, materials and wastes associated with individual industries. They also provide information on the likely presence of contamination, the effect of mobility of contaminants and guidance on potential contaminants. They are not definitive studies but they introduce some of the technical considerations that need to be borne in mind at the start of an investigation.