Contaminated sites
The term "contaminated site" refers to all those areas where, as a result of past or ongoing human activities, an alteration in the qualitative characteristics of the soil, subsoil or groundwater environmental matrices has been detected such as to represent a risk to human health.
The national legislation on remediation of contaminated sites, introduced in Italy by the Decree of the Minister of the Environment (now Minister of Environment and Energy Security - MASE) no. 471/99, has been replaced by the Legislative Decree no. 152/06 "Environmental Regulations" and its amendments which, in Part Four, Title V "Remediation of contaminated sites", regulates the remediation and environmental restoration of contaminated sites and defines the procedures, criteria and methods for carrying out the operations necessary for the elimination of the sources of pollution and, in any case, for the reduction of concentrations of pollutants, in harmony with EU principles and standards, with particular reference to the "polluter pays" principle.
ISPRA, as a technical Institute supporting the Ministry of Environment and Energy Security (MASE) has, among its activities, the task to issue and update guidelines for the characterization and remediation of contaminated sites, also in collaboration with other bodies and institutes involved.
The themes relating to contaminated sites are grouped in eight sections:
- Sites of national interest
- Register of sites subject to remediation procedures
- Priority criteria for intervention
- Environmental characterization
- Backfill materials
- Vapour monitoring
- Remediation technologies
- Health and environmental risk analysis
Documents related to each section are available for download (Italian version only)
Last update: June 2024