
A contaminated soil devalues the price of a land. That is why before acquiring a site on which industrial activities have been carried out, it is essential to carry out a study to assess the existence of soil contamination. This avoids unexpected financial outlays resulting from the necessary clean-up or remediation of the land, which is affected more often than one might think.
It is also advisable to consult the Land Registry, where it is recorded whether the Administration has declared the property as contaminated. By law, it is the owner of the activity that has caused a contamination or, ultimately, the owner of the land who must be responsible for its decontamination.
When a change of activity occurs on land where a potentially polluting activity (PPA) has been carried out in the past, the owners of the land where new economic activities are planned must submit a soil status report in order to obtain activity licenses. Such licenses will not be granted if the land is contaminated, i.e. if there is a potential unacceptable risk to human health based on the new uses to which the land is to be put.
Cleanup costs will depend on factors such as the type of contamination, its size and the time elapsed, but in any case they are costly operations that, in addition to money, lengthen the execution time of the new project.
For this reason, it is essential to check beforehand and to know under what circumstances the potentially polluting activities (APC) previously installed on the site have been carried out. In this sense, APC are considered to be those activities of industrial or commercial use in which, either by the handling of hazardous substances or by the generation of waste, they can contaminate the soil. Also any activity in which one of the following premises is given: that produces, handles or stores more than 10 tons per year of one or more substances included in Royal Decree 363/1995 or that has a fuel storage for its own use with a volume greater than or equal to 50,000 liters between all the tanks or that uses a minimum of 300,000 liters of fuel per year.
For more information, please contact litoclean@litoclean.es