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Contaminated land

People, animals and the environment can be exposed to hazardous substances on contaminated land in a number of ways, including: direct contact with contaminated soil, swallowing food or water from contaminated environments and breathing vapours or contaminated dust.

Exposure to hazardous substances can have significant adverse effects on human health and on soil, surface water, groundwater and ecosystems. As well as endangering health, these substances can limit the use of land, cause corrosion that may be threaten building structures, and reduce land value.

Contamination is not always limited to a specific site. Hazardous substances may seep through the soil into groundwater, or be carried to nearby land and waterways in rainwater or on dust particles. Vapour and gases from contaminated land may present additional risks of explosion and odour.

The Ministry has developed and is continuing to develop a number of measures to assist councils and practitioners assess and manage contaminants on land. For more information on these programmes and for other information see:

The Ministry is responsible for administering the Resource Management Act (RMA) 1991. The RMA is the core piece of environmental legislation for controlling the effects of contaminated land on the environment and people.

Local government (regional councils, city and district councils) are responsible for the day-to-day management of contaminated land and have specific functions under the RMA. Local government is in charge of controlling the effects of contaminated land, and also for controlling activities that cause land to become contaminated.

The Ministry has developed an extensive suite of tools in partnership with local government and industry. These tools include funding to help remediate contaminated land, and a range of guidelines designed to assist and support practitioners manage contaminated land.

Contaminated land defined by the RMA is land that has hazardous substances in or on it and is more contaminated than an applicable national environmental standard allows, or has, or is reasonably likely to have, significant adverse effects on the environment (including health).

Providing direction to contaminated land management

After extensive consultation in 2006 and 2007, the Ministry for the Environment has developed a programme of work designed to address the main issues associated with managing contaminated land.  This programme will address key issues and gaps that exist in how New Zealand manages contaminated land and will provide more central government leadership and direction to councils managing contaminated land.

Contaminated land management guidelines

In the past 10 years, the Ministry has undertaken a work programme to address the risks from land contamination. The result has been:

Contaminated Sites Remediation Fund

The Government has agreed for funding to be made available from the Contaminated Sites Remediation Fund to assist regional councils to encourage investigation and remediation of contaminated sites that pose a known or potential risk to human health and the environment within their regions.

The Ministry for the Environment is taking a lead on addressing historical issues relating to land contamination. This includes assisting, through the fund, to identify contaminated land, investigate and remediate high-risk areas. High profile examples of the Ministry leading the clean-up of high risk contaminated sites are:

Organochlorines

New Zealand historically imported and used widely a number of chemicals that are now listed as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) under the Stockholm Convention. POP chemicals include dioxins and furans, PCBs, and pesticides such as DDT and dieldrin. New Zealand has an obligation under the convention to identify sites contaminated by POPs, and to use environmentally sound methods when managing and remediating them. Remedial action may be warranted for areas found to have areas of localised contamination at sawmills (pentacholorophenol, dioxins), sheep dips (e.g. dieldrin) and on horticultural land (e.g. DDT).

Further information, see the Stockholm Convention, organochlorines, and New Zealand’s National Implementation Plan under the convention webpages.

For more information about any of the Ministry’s work on contaminated land please email contaminatedlandinfo@mfe.govt.nz

Last updated: 22 September 2008