Standard Helps Bring ‘Brownfield’ Land Back Into Use

Disused and potentially contaminated land, or ‘Brownfield’ land as it’s sometimes called, is a long-standing headache for many communities in the UK the British Standards Institution (BSI) reports.

Under the Environmental Protection Act, regulators are mandated to assess and make safe any contaminated land that could potentially pose risks to human health, the environment, waters and buildings.

In an ideal world that would mean investigating and cleaning up every potentially contaminated site, but in reality investigating and remediating sites can be complicated, confusing and expensive.

Developers and site owners can be discouraged from regenerating these areas by the costs associated with investigation and cleanup, and also the potential of blight.

For these reasons, it’s important that investigation of potentially contaminated sites be as logical, accessible and transparent as possible, while still being scientifically robust.

After ten years of use, the widely used British Standard BS 10175 Investigation of potentially contaminated sites. Code of practice has been revised to reflect current good practice. The revision is the result of wide ranging consultation with input from academics, industry and regulators.

Backed by regulators, the revised standard has been updated and expanded to reflect the significant changes in contaminated land investigation policy and practice since 2001. It’s also now simpler to use, and can be downloaded as a searchable PDF.

The document will be launched at an event Organised by SCI’s Environment Group and Health and Safety Group later this year, aimed at helping users of the document become familiar with the changes.