The Ministry administers the National Environment Standard on Contaminants in Soil, a nationally consistent set of planning controls and soil contaminant values. The Standard ensures that contaminated land is appropriately identified and assessed before it is developed, and where necessary remediated to make it safe for human use.
The Ministry administers the National Environment Standard on Contaminants in Soil, a nationally consistent set of planning controls and soil contaminant values. The Standard ensures that contaminated land is appropriately identified and assessed before it is developed, and where necessary remediated to make it safe for human use.
There are at least 20,000 sites in New Zealand on council registers that have been used for hazardous activities or industries that may cause contamination.
The Ministry has developed the Contaminated Land Management Guidelines to enable contaminated land to be assessed and managed consistently throughout the country.
This factsheet is one of 12 factsheets produced for the Environment Committee’s 2019/20 Estimates examination of Vote Environment.