EPHC Archive - Site contamination

Caution: archived content

Information previously available on the Environment Protection and Heritage Council (EPHC) website (www.ephc.gov.au) is listed in this archive. These pages are no longer being maintained or updated but remain here as an archive for your information.

 

Contaminated land has become an increasingly important environmental, health, economic and planning issue in Australia over the past few years. With changing community standards and the redevelopment of former industrial and agricultural land, there is increasing recognition of the problems associated with contaminated sites. The environmental implications of chemically contaminated land have now become a worldwide issue and in response many countries, including Australia, have developed a range of approaches to deal with the associated problems.

Guidelines for the Assessment and Remediation of Contaminated Sites

In 1992, in an effort to overcome this situation, the Australian and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council (ANZECC) and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) jointly developed Guidelines for the Assessment and Remediation of Contaminated Sites. The Assessment of Site Contamination NEPM, made in 1999, replaces the assessment component of this guideline.

Proceedings of the Fifth National Workshop on the Assessment of Site Contamination

Workshop papers

The Fifth National Workshop on the Assessment of Site Contamination was held in Adelaide in May 2002 and the proceedings of that workshop are available for free download below. The workshop was sponsored by enHealth Council, Environment Australia the National Environment Protection Council and the Environment Protection and Heritage Council and was organised by NEPC Service Corporation.

The objectives of the workshop were to:

provide a forum for the discussion of protocols and policies for the risk assessment and management of contaminated land help the development of a consistent approach to the risk assessment and management of contaminated land across Australia encourage the interchange of state of the art information and ideas, and establish the basis for soil criteria for a range of substances and landuse scenarios.

Much valuable information was presented at the Fifth Workshop and publication of the proceedings is intended to make the information more widely available.

The papers in these Proceedings do not represent the views of the Health Council, Environment Australia, the Environment Protection and Heritage Council, the National Environment Protection Council nor the employing organisations of the authors and will not necessarily be incorporated into future policy. Some papers have been published as presented without significant editorial revision. Some papers have been modified to reflect comment provided during and after the Workshop.

The complex processes for the assessment and management of contaminated land are evolving rapidly. Any comments on the papers in this document may be provided to the NEPC Service Corporation.

Download Workshop Papers