Contaminated land

Land that has previously been contaminated by industrial/commercial use and waste disposal.

This means there may be harmful substances in, on or under the land and that water pollution might be caused by substances at the site.

Land is declared contaminated when:

• it contains significant levels of a pollutant (known as the source)
• someone or something (known as the receptor) could be affected by the pollutant and
• the pollutant can get to the receptor in significant quantities (known as the pathway)