Newsletter
PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO SOIL AND GROUNDWATER REMEDIATION ACT
The Environmental Protection Administration has recently announced certain proposed amendments to the Soil and Groundwater Pollu-tion Remediation Act. The main points are as follows:
Relaxing the definition of polluter
The current Act makes a polluter liable for remediation of pollution caused by an unlawful polluting act. The draft deletes the element of "unlawfulness." Thus, regardless of whether a polluting act is lawful (i.e., compliant with then prevailing standards) or unlawful, the fact of pollution alone will make the polluter liable to remediate the polluted site or to pay compensation.
The agencies administrating industrial zones and science-based industrial parks will be re-quired to test the condition of soil and groundwater within such areas annually, and to file the results with their local environ-mental authorities.
Transparency
When a site is officially designated a pollution control site or pollution remediation site, the local environmental authorities must record related information in the land registry, in order to protect the rights of land users and avoid disputes arising over the sale of polluted land.
Expanded fee base
Under the current Act, soil and groundwater remediation fees are levied only in respect of officially designated "chemical" substances, and fee collection has been implemented against enterprises producing or using petro-chemical products. The draft amendments would expand the range of pollutants on which fees are levied, to include other sub-stances such as heavy metals.
Facilitation of Land Redevelopment
To increase developers' willingness to reme-diate and redevelop polluted land, the EPA proposes to delete the existing provision whereby a land developer who simultaneously submits both a remediation plan and a land development plan must make a payment into the soil and groundwater pollution remedia-tion fund.
Strengthened Enforcement Measures
The draft provides the environmental authori-ties with the power to impose sanctions against the polluters for repeated delay in submitting remediation plans or in modifying remediation plans according to the require-ments of the environmental authorities. In addition, to ensure the payment of fees due under the Act, the environmental authorities may enforce provisional attachment orders against the property of polluters and of related parties of polluted land.