TOXIC SHOCK

摘要

Government policymakers who have latched on to brownfield regeneration could be about to see their plans blown out of the water. New European rules on the disposal of hazardous waste will impose a ban on the current UK practice of disposing of hazardous and non-hazardous waste in the same landfill site. The effect will be to slash the number of landfill sites that can accept contaminated soil from brownfield developments, pushing up remediation costs, and thereby jeopardising the government's regeneration policy. There are even fears that key regeneration initiatives such as the Thames Gateway and the Lea Valley Olympic site could become casualties of the changes. The 1999 EU landfill directive comes into force on the 16 July in England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland will be bringing forward separate legislation to implement the directive. Lord Richard Rogers, chairman of the Urban Task Force, warns that as a consequence of the changes brownfield regeneration will become "vastly more expensive". Rogers is so concerned about the legislation's impact that wrote to deputy prime minister John Prescott late last year warning him of the consequences of the directive on the government's urban vision.