Management of Contaminated Sites and Land in Central and Eastern Europe

Preface

The enormous increase of waste volumes and the widespread use of chemicals during the past four decades have resulted in a variety of soil problems in most of the world. The contamination pattern differs, depending on the individual countries’ industrial history, geographic and geological conditions and many other factors.

Yet, one common feature seems to be the impact on the environment. The magnitude of the problems is, however, far from exhaustively described.

The European Environment Agency concluded in 1998 that over 300,000 potentially contaminated sites have been identified in Western Europe alone, and the estimated total number in Europe is much larger.

This report is the first systematic survey of problems with contaminated soil in 21 Eastern and Central European countries. The report describes the contamination problems in a common form, enabling comparison of and access to information about the individual countries.

Most Eastern European countries face problems similar to those in the West, particularly in areas with a long tradition of heavy industry or with abandoned military bases.

Regulatory and financial frameworks for dealing with contaminated sites are not developed in many of the Central and Eastern European countries, but will be important tools for ensuring a sustainable development. Without regulatory and financial frameworks for management of contaminated soil and resulting uncertainty of liability, private investors will - for fear of having to pay for soil remediation – locate new industries on greenfields in stead of using the already existing industrial areas.

In Denmark we provide international environmental assistance to CEE countries as well as to developing countries. Till now soil and groundwater protection has only been included in a limited number of projects. This was a reasonable prioritisation, since, at short sight, other environmental problems have been more urgent.

I would like to thank the governmental experts in the 21 Central and Eastern Europeans countries for their contribution to the report. Without their support the report could not have been written. Also the European Environment Agency Topic Centre for Soil has contributed valuable information.

I am sure that within a few years, soil contamination projects will play a more central role. We hope that our assistance can help avoid the mistakes we made ourselves during our development of soil management systems. Therefore, I hope that the report may support the future work.

Steen Gade

Director General, Danish Environmental Protection Agency