covenant on soil clean up of industrial sites in actual and lasting use
On 11 June 2001 the Minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and Environment, the Minister of Economic Affairs, the Boards of the Provincial Executive, the Association of Netherlands Municipalities and two organizations for trade and industry signed a covenant on the principles which will govern regulation of reimbursement of clean up costs made by industries. The regulation, called the Bedrijvenregeling (Industries Regulation), applicable in most provinces and municipalities since 2003, has been consolidated in and modified by the Besluit financiële bepalingen bodemsanering, which entered into force January 1, 2006.
The Industries Regulation provides in outline:
1. Owners and leaseholders of industrial sites must carry out a soil clean up when the site is in use and will continue to be used as industrial site. The obligation exists when the site is seriously contaminated and urgently requires cleanup.
2. The Covenant provided that owners and leaseholders referred to in paragraph 1 may be reimbursed for part of the clean up cost when only 20% or less of the contamination was caused after 1 January 1975. This condition disappeared in the Besluit financiële bepalingen bodemsanering, because many site-owners disqualified for a contribution because of this condition. The Besluit financiële bepalingen bodemsanering provides that only the part of the pollution that is caused before 1 January 1975 is eligible for a contribution.
