Soil contamination issues have complicate a number of development applications I have been involved with over the years. In most instances they have been former service stations and /or fuel depots. Therefore contamination of the surrounding soil and/or ground water has mostly occurred from the leaking of fuel tanks when in use or because they have been left in the ground without being properly decommissioned.
In other instances there has been suspected contamination by a former land use, but mostly these have not proved to be significant because the land use proposed is not considered a more sensitive land use than the previous land use. This has been established after extensive discussions with the Council Planner and reference to the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016. The land use Sensitivity Hierarchy lists high risk contaminators as land uses such as petrol stations, dry cleaners, warehouses and industry that exposure the surrounding environment to chemicals and site contamination. This is weighed up against the sensitivity of the human populations proposed to be using the land following the proposed change of use of the land.
The Site Contamination Declaration Form prepared identifies that site contamination exists or may exist. The potential for exposure is considered high so the development application needs to be referred to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA). Then a Preliminary Site Investigation (PSI) would normally be undertaken prior to any intrusive investigation of the site. The PSI investigation is a detailed assessment of historical records, plans, maps, photographs and other information that can be gathered about the site.
If the preliminary investigation establishes that potential contaminating activities have occurred on the site that could contaminate soil, groundwater, soil vapour and indoor air further reference will be necessary to the EPA. Then an intrusive investigation will need to be undertaken to confirm the presence or otherwise of contamination:
- Intrusive assessment at the site by taking core soil samples
- Determine the existence nature and extent of the contamination i.e. groundwater
- Further information needed to devise a remediation strategy if needed i.e. types of chemicals evident.
Then an assessment of the site suitability given the extent of the contamination and require remediation for the change of land use is prepared. An added complication can also be that soil contamination is the responsibility of the owner of the land. As I am usually dealing with the Applicant wanting to change the use of the land this means costs need to be sorted out between the owner and applicant(s).
The whole process can be quite onerous but there are logical steps/checks and balances that we can use to help smooth out the process and achieve a successful outcome.
Simon Grose
Advantage Planning Services