Soil analysis

The Environmental Protection Law Act - covers soil and earth pollution caused before April 30, 2007, called the historical pollution of the earth's surface.

In the area where, prior to April 30, 2007, activities were carried out that could, with high probability, cause historical pollution of the earth's surface, and there are indications of historical pollution of the earth's surface, the Regional Director for Environmental Protection may, by way of a decision, impose on the person ruling the earth's surface obligation to carry out soil and ground contamination tests and remediation.

The Act on the prevention of environmental damage and its repair - covers soil and ground pollution arising after April 30, 2007, i.e. damage to the environment in the earth's surface resulting from activities posing a risk of their occurrence.

In case of environmental damage to the earth's surface after 2007, exists the rule "the polluter pays". This rule was regulated by the above Act. In such a case, the investor who purchased the contaminated property shall not be liable for the contamination of the land he has acquired.

Therefore, such an important element before purchasing real estate should be the identification of contaminated areas.

The contamination of the earth's surface is assessed on the basis of exceeding the permissible content of hazardous substances in the soil or in the ground on the basis of the Regulation of the Minister of the Environment on the method of conducting the assessment of land surface contamination.

This regulation specifies:

• substances causing the risk of particular importance for the protection of the earth's surface, their permissible content in soil and soil, differentiated for individual soil properties and soil groups, separated on the basis of their use,
• the requirements for determining the permissible content in the soil and ground of a substance that causes a risk, other than that indicated in point 1, taking into account the analysis of its impact on human health and the environment,
• steps for identifying contaminated sites, including how to identify currently or past activities that may cause pollution in a given area, how to establish a list of risk substances expected to be present in soil or ground due to the activity, sources of information relevant to assessing the risk of soil or ground contamination, the conditions for recognizing the existing soil and ground pollution tests as current, stages and methods of conducting soil and ground pollution tests, and types of activities that may very likely cause historical pollution of the earth's surface, together with an indication of examples of pollution for these activities,
• reference methodologies for soil and ground pollution tests,
• detailed requirements for the assessment of soil, ground or groundwater pollution on the premises of the plant, where the installation requiring an integrated permit has been operated or has been operated in the past, in order to ensure the identification of each pollutant before commissioning the installation, during its operation and after closure, including requirements for the scope and method of preparing the initial report

In WESSLING Polska we consider each case individually, with the greatest care and in compliance with the requirements of the currently applicable legal regulations.

• Determination of the list of pollutants on the basis of archival information and the type of economic activity conducted in the surveyed area
• Establish a list of substances that present a hazard
• Accredited surface and borehole sampling
• Accredited physico-chemical soil analysis including: heavy metals, cyanides, gasoline and oils, BTEX, PAHs, chlorobenzenes, chlorophenols, VOX, PCBs, organochlorine pesticides and others
• Accredited water permeability test of cohesive and non-cohesive soils
• Remediation plan project
• Assessment of water and soil pollution

Please contact us if you have any questions or you want to submit an inquiry.