Registration of potentially contaminated sites in Catalonia has tripled since 2005

Catalan companies opt for the voluntary path of land recovery without waiting for the inspection to take place

Catalonia is one of the industrial engines of Spain and concentrates almost a quarter of the production of goods, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics. The other side of the coin is that it also becomes the region likely to lead the ranking of the most degraded soils, since industrial and commercial activity is responsible for most of the contamination of the subsoil and groundwater. This fact has forced the administration to carry out a greater control to avoid affecting the territory and to ensure the correction in case of detecting important anomalies.

Soil contamination is the alteration of the earth’s surface with harmful chemical substances resulting from human activity, which are detrimental to the health of people and the environment. Since the degradation of our soils has increased in recent decades as a result of industrialization and urban development, one of the solutions is to control the sources of pollution.

In Spain there was no general regulation protecting soil until April 1998, when the Waste Law was published. This law arose from the need to adapt our regulations to those of the European Union regarding soil protection against pollution. However, the law only established the basic principles, and it was not until seven years later, thanks to Royal Decree 9/2005, that its application became effective.

Thus, in 2005, for the first time, the administration obliged companies carrying out potentially polluting activities to submit a report on the state of the land they occupy. Since that year, the register of potentially polluting sites in Catalonia has tripled the number of locations under the necessary control, according to data from the Waste Agency of the autonomous community. These have risen from around 500 to the 1447 sites currently registered.

Subsequently, Law 22/2011 on the management of waste and contaminated soils regulated the obligations of the owners of activities potentially harmful to the soil. Among other things, it obliges companies or, failing that, the landowner to take responsibility for cleaning up the area through a company specialized in soil remediation, such as LITOCLEAN, a benchmark in the sector. Among the limitations that currently exist for contaminated land is the suspension of the right to build.

Faced with this regulation, which led to an increase in inspections and sanctions, Catalan companies have mainly opted for the voluntary way of soil remediation. In other words, they start the remediation process without waiting for the administration itself to determine in an inspection that the area needs to be remediated.

Main sources of contamination

According to a report by the Waste Agency of Catalonia, in 2016, 80% of pollution cases originated from industrial and commercial activity. Among these, service stations (22%), the chemical industry (16%) and waste management activities (10%) stand out.

The main contaminants are TPH-Petroleum hydrocarbons, in 42% of the cases, followed by metals, in 19% of the cases.