Contaminated land provisions commence

The much delayed contaminated land provisions in Part 8 of Chapter 4 of the National Environmental Management: Waste Act 59 of 2008 (“the Waste Act“) came into operation on 2 May 2014. The commencement will have significant implications for industrial land which may be contaminated and, in particular, imposes new obligations on the Seller of contaminated land. The contaminated land provisions have been dormant for almost five years and there has been uncertainty regarding their reach, some of this uncertainty remains. Allied with the commencement of contaminated land provisions, the final norms and standards for remediation of contaminated land and soil quality were published on 2 May 2014. In addition, the remediation of contaminated land was removed as a listed activity from Category A of the Waste Management Activities List.