1. Inventories & CSI015 indicator: Case study in Wallonia (BE) Esther GOIDTS Soil Protection Direction Soil & Waste Department DG Agriculture, Natural Resources & Environment EIONET soil Ad Hoc WG on contaminated sites and brownfields Ispra – March 10-11th 2015

2. 2 Outline 1 – Context 2 – Available databases (registers) 3 – Inventory 4- Link with CSI015 indicator/management steps 5 – Conclusions

3. 3 Context of Wallonia General localisation of Belgium Administrative regions in charge of environmental & agricultural competences Context

4. 4 Landscapes and human activity => Human activities and industries have mainly developped along the waterway networks and the richness of the subsoil (Sambre-and-Meuse riverline) Angleur - 1855 (CHST) Long history of industrial activity XVIIIth : coal and metal (iron) mining XIXth : 2d industrial world power Context

5. 5 2 – Available databases ContextDatabases

6. Sources of information (~registers) land planning decree => Economic wasteland, including brownfields 1) Legal obligations waste decree / environment code protection at work regulation – gas station / environmental permit decree => Gas stations, all activities requiring environmental permit soil decree => Potentially polluting activities/installations (annex III – 233) => Landfills, big activities / installations coal-producing site regulation => Coal-producing sites under rehabilitation Numerical data 1967 1985 1999 2008 1978 ContextDatabases revised land planning decree (management of soil pollution in economic wasteland) => Distinction between heavily polluted sites and lighter ones 2004

7. 7 Sources of information (~registers) land planning decree => Economic wasteland, including brownfields 1) Legal obligations 1967 waste decree / environment code 1985 1999 => Landfills, big activities / installations coal-producing site regulation => Coal-producing sites under rehabilitation 1978 1947 - 2002 => The period from the industrial revolution of the XIXth century to the 2d world war is the major period for industrial activities in Wallonia 1810 - 1947 unhealthy & dangerous establishments regulation cadastral law ~1830 - today Old legal obligations + one-shot cadastral plan around 1860 (POPP) ContextDatabases protection at work regulation – gas station / environmental permit decree => Gas stations, all activities requiring environmental permit soil decree => Potentially polluting activities/installations (annex III – 233) 2008 revised land planning decree (management of soil pollution in economic wasteland) => Distinction between heavily polluted sites and lighter ones 2004

8. 8 Sources of information (~registers) 2) Old topography maps Ferraris map => Not enough semantic details on installations/activities, although acurate land use drawings 1770- 1777 ContextDatabases

9. 9 Sources of information (~registers) 2) Old topography maps 1770- 1777 Ferraris map Vandermaelen map (VDM) => Especially focused on transportation networks (roads, rails & waterways), buildings including related activities, and not so much on general land use or topography: ideal for inventory purposes 1846- 1854 ContextDatabases

10. 10 Sources of information (~registers) 3) Questionnaires to local authorities 2002 => collecting informations + informing local authorities for their access to means (tools and funds) and procedures to follow 2013 250 < n < 2000 570 < area (ha) < 7350 industrial wastelands & landfills => mainly located in Hainaut & Liège provinces (west and eastern parts) ContextDatabases

11. 11 3 – Inventory ContextDatabases Inventory

12. 12 1 - Definition Soil decree (2008) « SSDB inventories, for each cadastral parcel and for non cadastral properties, the following available data within administration: identity of real rights holder(s), data from (potentially) polluted fields inventories, data from soil investigations, soil control certificates of investigated or remediated fields and documents attesting conform remediation, references of operating permissions and environmental permits of activities and installations potentially polluting soils, references of remediation plans » Soil Status Database - SSDB  SSDB is established progessively and managed by administration, and can be extended to other informations by the government  SSDB access is ruled by the governement, without prejudice to public access to environmental data, which especially organises direct access to obligations holders, public authorities, acquisition comitees, notaries, soil experts and control organisms  Rectifications of SSDB can be asked by real rights holder(s) or by operators if necessary (~= « Inventory » in EU terminology) SSDB use: administration judgement for permit delivery/cessation of activity/bankcruptcy, trigger for soil investigations, information for sellers/purchasers through notaries, prioritization of sites remediation,... => the inventory is made of several registers ContextDatabases Inventory

13. 13 2 – method of implementation 1) Identification of databases (~registers) and their link with the inventory from legal obligations, maps, questionnaires,... based on a common terminology (definition & list of PP activities from Soil Decree ) => DB need to be subject to integration which is caracterised by technical constraints, especially spatial resolution issues (common spatial referential at the cadastral parcel level needed) 2) Assessment of their relevance and their quality, then integration process Exhaustive georeferenced DB (cadastral matrix, existing DB on polluted sites,...) DB requiring pre-processing (environmental permits DB, historical maps/plan,...) DB difficult to exploite ( no detailed georeferencing available, restricted access,...) ContextDatabases Inventory

14. 14 2 – method of implementation Users 3) Organisation of the inventory dynamic (consultations, modifications, updates) Users online cartographic interface and access filters (front office) updates (back office) ContextDatabases Inventory

15. 15 3 – Soil status database of Wallonia (under finalisation) => DB has the information at the cadastral parcel resolution as the inventory can be a trigger for actions (investigations) on the site Parcel location details Registers Research tool ContextDatabases Inventory

16. 16 Status in the inventory: in potentially polluting activity register? status in polluted field register? administrative data available? in soil control certificate register? Sources of information used to determine the status in the inventory 3 – Soil status database of Wallonia (under finalisation) Possibility to ask for a modification/rectification of informations ContextDatabases Inventory Notaries, experts, …

17. 17  the average density of potentially contaminated site is of 9 to 10 sites per 10 km²  between 1/8 and 2/3 of these sites were found contaminated after investigations  almost half of those contaminated sites have been remediated 4 – (Potentially) polluted « sites » before spatial integration (2013) Spatial integration in process to avoid redundancy of sites, new spatial unit = cadastral parcel Legal framework / Driver Starting date of database n sitesPotentially contaminated ContaminatedRemediated low estimatehigh estimatelow estimateHigh estimate Soil decree5/12/2008422 132 2909 Environmental permit decree11/3/19997391 ?? Protection at work – gas stations4/3/19991905 514 1000391 Waste decree1985 - 26/6/19961156 187 345624 Economic wasteland (brownfields included) within land planning decree 1978 - 27/11/19971897414713423592203352 Historical studies (Vandermaelen map – CHST 2012) 1846 - 18545694 ?? Total18.46520.71515.26017.51018381376 ContextDatabases Inventory

18. 18 5 – Time needed and estimated development costs Search of historical sites and numerisation (from 2010, still running) GIS development of SSDB – phase I (from 2013, still running) Soil decree 20082009201020112012201320142015  Starting point for establishing unique centralised DB = soil legal framework  Time to constitute SSDB itself 2 yrs, but at least 5 yrs for inventory activities  External cost for development of SSDB itself (~0,4 M€) lower than inventory of potentially polluted sites phase, ie questionnaires and historical research since soil decree (>2,5 M€) ~ 1,2 M€ at total ~ 0,5 M€ at total Informatic management system for Soil decree (from 2011, still running) ~1,5 M€ at total Executive decree Questionnaires from local authorities (from 2013, under finalisation) ~ 1,2 M€ at total ContextDatabases Inventory 2016: expected public availability of SSDB (need revision of soil decree) Existing decentralised registers + 2002 questionnaire

19. 19 4 – Link with CSI015 indicator Inventory ContextDatabasesCSI015

20. 20 Terminology « Field where a soil pollution is suspected, especially because of the presence or existence in the past of an activity or installation or wastes likely polluting soil, or because of the knowledge of a particular accident, not yet confirmed by analyses » Soil Decree (2008) Potentially polluted field (~= « Potentially contaminated site » in EU terminology) Annex III listing activities and installations likely polluting soils (233) Inventory ContextDatabasesCSI015  soil: superficial layer of terrestrial crust, including groundwater and other present elements and organisms  pollution: presence on or in soil of pollutants detrimental or potentially detrimental, directly or indirectly to soil quality contamination (fr) = presence of pollutants not necessarly detrimental to soil quality  pollutant: product, preparation, substance, chemical compound, organism, or microorganism likely being responsible of a pollution Norms based on risk assessment (Threshold value < polluted)

21. 21 Terminology Field vs site Inventory ContextDatabasesCSI015 Potentially polluted field (~= « Potentially contaminated site » in EU terminology)  field: soil, delimited by a part, or one or several cadastral parcels, including buildings and installations incorporated in soil, and subject to the soil study Site (Wall) = area potentially impacted by a polluted field (it includes the pollution source(s), the transfer pathways and the receptors and may be wider than the polluted field itself) Spatial resolution issue & perimeter definition

22. 22 Management steps of CSI015 (a) - site identification: « mapping of sites where potentially polluting activities have taken place or are still in operation » (BE, LU, NL, FR) -preliminary study: obj= deduce possibility of contamination and formulate H0 (nature/location/distribution of contamination), if necessary limited investigation to validate H0 (Austria, Hungary, Norway) (b) preliminary investigation: obj= confirm contamination (c) main site investigation: obj= define extent & degree of contaminatinon, risks, need for remediation measures (d) implementation of risk reduction measures  For Wallonia, check if sites are polluted compared to the norms (B people)  For Wallonia, it's the first part of the preliminary investigation i.e. a desk study to identify potentially polluted sites (without soil investigations) (B people) For Wallonia, detailed investigations including site-specific risk assessment to identify « heavy threat » and to define remediation targets (A and B people)  For A and B people: sites under remediation or after care measures Inventory ContextDatabasesCSI015  list of potentially polluting activities (233)  site = « point » (i.e. one administrative line/file – potential spatial redundancy) site = perimeter (cadastral parcel, administrative field, « site »?)

23. 23  the new structure suggested doesn’t exactly fit the situation, due to the terminology and slight differences in step management Spatial mapping of the different registers only based on potentially polluting activities (point -> perimeter) No difference… « Potentially polluted sites/parcels »… A study has been submitted to the administration (legal trigger) Polluted sites or not polluted sites (with or without measures) Polluted sites with further investigation (extent & heavy threat) Polluted sites with or without remediation needed (heavy threat/new pollution) Preliminary study = (Wall) site- specific desk study without soil analyses = first part of preliminary investigation Heavy threat at least removed by remediation Remediated sites (with or without after care measures) depend on the administrative status classification of each relevant database Inventory ContextDatabasesCSI015 Management steps of CSI015 Study introduced but not completed yet Polluted sites whatever status of study (a part presents heavy threat => « contaminated »?)

24. 24 4 – Conclusions Inventory ContextDatabasesConclusionsCSI015

25. 25 various databases can be of high relevance for the inventory (from legal obligations, topography maps, questionnaires,...), therefore several « registers » exist => however, they need to be integrated based on a common terminology and spatial reference resolution (this might require pre-processing or excluding some databases) inventory is a main dynamic tool for polluted land management and is triggered by soil legal obligations => for 2013 the number of potentially polluted sites in Wallonia ranges between 15.260 and 17.510 sites (~10 sites/10 km², half of identified PS are managed)  Estimates will be revised when SSDB finalised (no more spatial redundancy)  Time and cost needed especially for inventoring potentially polluted sites  update of SSDB through various triggers inventory partially answers CSI015 => terminology differs (site, pollution/contamination), first management steps differs Inventory (&registers)Context & terminologyDatabasesConclusions

26. 26 Proposals JRC (feedback expected) 1.Request to use same format from 2011 exercice for next reporting 2.Keep monitoring of CS management by updating PCS, CS and RS numbers and including national/regional informations 3.Request to report the new PCS 4.Ask for some MS how they are monitoring the progress in CS management 5.Stepwise approach : description of criteria for CS and not CS, best practices & method for these criteria, development of guidance on best practices on CS 6.Ask for policy targets 7.Find financial framework for cooperation Inventory (&registers)Context & terminologyDatabasesConclusions  OK but no better results achieved at EU scale  OK  OK!  OK

27. 27 Inventory (&registers)Context & terminologyDatabasesConclusions options (CF)? –Option to limit scope to historical sites –Option to better define the « site » –Option to limit potentially polluting activities to list Annexe II SFD –Option to clarify link between management steps and PCS / CS inventory (+ « EU thresholds »?)

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