Legislation concerning remediation and risk assessment of contaminated sites

Legislation concerning risk assessment and liability for remediation of contaminated sites has been studied in this study. The focus of this study has been in legislation. Risk assessment in practice has been analysed by studying decisions concerning remediation of contaminated sites made by environmental authorities and courts. In legislation liability for remediation of contaminated sites is based on polluter pays principle. If the polluter cannot pay, owner or tenant of the contaminated site can be hold liable for remediation. In order to ensure remediation there are also insurances and public funds, which can be used for funding the remediation, if the polluter is not able to pay. Polluter's liability is effected by the need of remediation based on risk assessment of contaminated sites. Estimation of the need of remediation is based on defining and controlling the risks of contaminated site. Risk assessment is more than just a comparison of amounts of pollutants to the limit values. It includes also assessment of quality and distribution of pollutants, exposure possibilities and risks to human health, plants and animals. In practice risks to the health and environment have often instead of assessing only been identified by comparing concentrations of pollutants to limit values and estimating the quality of environment. (orig.)