Polluted sites and soils

The EPF was tasked with setting up and managing a department specialised on the issue of soil pollution ...

The "Polluted Sites and Soils" Department | The EPF and polluted soils | Today

Upon approval of the State-Region Planning Contract for 1994-1998, the EPF was tasked with setting up and managing a department specialised on the issue of soil pollution.

At this time, Planning Contract funds mobilised for the redevelopment of industrial brownfields by the EPF did not cover specific pollution cleanup works. These were the responsibility of industrial companies or the owners of polluted sites, and are still governed by the laws on Classified Installations for Environment. In the case of "orphan" sites, the state acts as a substitute to the failing owners through the Ademe's intervention.

In this context, the Polluted Sites and Soils Department was adjoined to the EPF in 1996, with dedicated personal and funding from the Planning Contracts and European funds.

Led by the Etablissement, it has gathered stakeholders from various backgrounds concerned with the three issues of soils, sediments and research:

• state administrations, first of all the DRIRE and public agencies (Agence de l’Eau Artois-Picardie, Ademe, VNF,etc…),
• local communities including the Conseil régional and the most affected agglomerations,
• environmental NGOs, particularly the EDA led by Danièle Poliautre,
• research labs of the universities of Nord-Pas de Calais, the Institut Supérieur d’Agronomie de Lille and the Centre National de Recherche sur les Sites et Sols Pollués adjoined to the Ecole des Mines de Douai,
• professional associations of consulting engineers and companies specialised in the diagnose and treatment of polluted soils, sediments and water.

The Polluted Sites and Soils was thus able to build on the debates among its interdisciplinary partner groups to elaborate a strategy of shared diagnoses and identify new challenges for the management of polluted soils in the region.

Supported by an active communication strategy both on the regional and national level, the department's works have reached a wide audience. They are particularly focused on combining legal and technical approaches specific to polluted soils with the issue of the urban use of these sites, thus opening the way to the integration of the polluted soils issue into urban renewal strategies.

This change of mindset was sanctioned by the passing in 2003 of the "Loi Bachelot", a law for the prevention of technological and natural hazards and damage reparation that associates local communities to the future use of industrial sites upon their closure.