Environmental Law - Soil Pollution in the Flemish Region

In this short contribution, we will highlight the extent to which the clean-up operations, once they are imposed, should be carried out under the new Flemish Statute on soil clean-up.

Soil clean-up should aim at achieving the background values as far as soil quality is concerned. These values will be established by the Flemish government. To this end, the normal background in non-polluted soils presenting comparable soil characteristics is placed first and foremost.

Whenever these background values cannot be achieved by measures corresponding to the best available technology not entailing excessive costs (i.e., the famous "BATNEEC"-principle), the soil clean-up should at least aimed achieving a better soil quality than is prescribed by the "clean-up criteria". The "clean-up criteria" trigger the obligation to clean-up newly polluted soil but have yet to be established by the Flemish government. In this respect, the characteristics of the soil (clay, gravel, etc.) and its