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Guidelines that address contaminants from specific industries or activities
Since 1997 the Ministry has produced four guidelines to help assess and manage the types of hazardous substances commonly associated with these industries and activities. Guidance has been prepared for assessing contamination associated with timber treatment, gas works, petroleum hydrocarbon, and former sheep dip sites.
The guidance has specifically focused on these industries and activities as they are considered to be the most common cause of contaminated land in New Zealand.
While these guidelines have been written specifically for these industries and activities, they contain useful generic guidance including soil contaminant values that can be applied to all types of contaminated land.
Sites contaminated with timber treatment chemicals
The Health and Environmental Guidelines for Selected Timber Treatment Chemicals provides guidance on the assessment and management of timber treatment sites, including numerical values for selected timber treatment chemicals. As the first New Zealand contaminated land management guideline, this document also provides generic guidance on sampling strategies and investigation techniques that could be - and in practice have been - applied to all contaminated site types. This guideline also has, by presenting guideline derivation equations and exposure definitions, provided the generic approach that practitioners have used to derive guideline values for other substances or for site-specific situations.
Contaminated gasworks sites
Guidelines for Assessing and Managing Contaminated Gasworks Sites in New Zealand includes numerical values for hazardous substances associated with gasworks sites.
Petroleum hydrocarbon
The Guidelines for Assessing and Managing Petroleum Hydrocarbon Contaminated Sites in New Zealand include numerical values for hazardous substances associated with petroleum hydrocarbon sites.
Former sheep dip sites
Identifying, Investigating and Managing Risks Associated with Former Sheep-dip Sites: A Guide for Local Authorities provides guidance to help local authorities address the potential risks arising from contaminated sheep-dip sites. Includes environmental guideline values for sheep dip contaminants.
Related links
Contaminated Land Management Guidelines
The series of 5 guidelines cover reporting, Application of environmental guideline values, Risk screening classification and information management, and Investigation and analysis.
Their main purpose is to introduce consistency in contaminated land assessment and management throughout the country.
Other relevant guidelines
The following Ministry guidelines are widely used to assess the effects of hazardous substances on air, surface water and sediment:
- Australian and New Zealand Guidelines for Fresh and Marine Water Quality
- Ambient Air Quality Guidelines
Other government departments have also produced guidance related to managing the effects of contaminated land.
- Ministry of Health - Environmental Case Management of Lead Exposed Persons: Guidelines for Public Health Services. These guidelines provide practical advice for the investigation and environmental case management of people with elevated levels of lead, and are particularly aimed at risks arising from lead-based paint. The guidelines include recommendations for protecting children from lead in soil, and are principally taken from United States guidance. Guidance is also provided on dust and soil-sampling techniques for residential situations.
- Occupational Safety and Health – Workplace Exposure Standards. This guideline assigns standards for concentrations in air for approximately 700 substances. The Workplace Exposure Standards (WES) are intended to be used as guidelines for those involved in occupational health practice. Although the WES are called “standards”, they do not have the force of regulation that national environmental standards and food standards have.
