Good land quality

Land quality is of fundamental importance to the people, environment, wildlife, industry, economy and cultural heritage of Scotland. The term ‘land’ is interpreted by SEPA as soils, geology and associated ground cover and vegetation. ‘Land quality’ is defined by the sustainable uses to which it can be put and its overall fitness for purpose and will depend on the chemical, physical and biological properties of soils.

SEPA will:

• use duties and powers under existing legislation to protect land quality and where restoration is required ensure it is performed in a sustainable manner;

• provide focused advice and inform forthcoming legislation, in particular European and Scottish soils policy and developments;

• seek to influence decisions on land use made by the planning authorities through comments on environmental quality issues and advice on issues such as flooding;

• promote the adoption of good practice to ensure that land is used sustainably;

• work in partnership with other organisations when gathering and managing data, developing policies and promoting best practice; and

• influence, promote and contribute to funding research into land quality and protection.

SEPA will continue to work closely with other organisations, as well as stakeholders, to achieve our objectives through implementation of SEPA’s Land Protection Policy which is available on our website⁷. SEPA will also continue to have an active input to the EU soil thematic strategy due to be published this year.

Summary of SEPA’s outcome and targets:

* Note this target is a subset of the improvement targets in the water outcome.

† This relates to our role as specialist agency under common agriculture policy cross-compliance. The number of catchments that will be improved has still to be determined.

§ Compliance targets: Ensure that waste application to land complies with the Sludge (use in Agriculture) Regulations 1989 and the relevant objectives of waste management exemptions paragraphs 7, 8, 9 and 19; Control of Pollution Act 94% (increasing to 95% and transferring to Controlled Activities Regulations in 2006); Integrated Pollution Control, Air Pollution Control and Pollution Prevention and Control (Part Bs) 92%; and Waste Management Licences 90%.

Measuring Progress

A considerable amount of work remains to be done in order that data is available to measure progress against the above targets. SEPA has made a good start and baseline data is now being established, for example, in relation to quantities of exempt organic waste applied to land. SEPA will work with the Scottish Executive and Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, as well as Scottish Natural Heritage, the Environment Agency, Forestry Commission, Macaulay Land Use Research Institute and Centre for Ecology and Hydrology to make further progress in this area.

Outputs and Activities

Quality and monitoring

SEPA will continue to develop a soil monitoring strategy in 2005/06. We will also contribute to the identification of key indicators of land quality over the next five years together with Scottish, other UK and Irish partners.

We will begin by focusing our monitoring effort on our regulatory functions, for example, the impact of using waste for treating land. Measures of sustainable practices will also be developed to enable better assessment of good practice, as well as statutory requirements.

Diffuse agricultural pollution

Agriculture is one of the principal causes of diffuse pollution of water, the quality of which can be used as a substitute measure to infer soil quality. To encourage the uptake of best management practices, SEPA will continue to promote good practice in priority catchments during farm inspections and will participate in the development of land management contracts. SEPA has commissioned a range of projects on best management practices to reduce diffuse agricultural pollution and the recommendations will be disseminated by SEPA and partner organisations in 2005/06. SEPA is also supporting industry-led programmes such as ‘The Voluntary Initiative' in relation to pesticides.

To control diffuse pollution, regulatory powers are being introduced through the Water Environment and Water Services (Scotland) Act 2003. SEPA will also fulfil its role as a specialist agency under the inspection and reporting arrangements under common agricultural policy reform from 2005 onwards.

Atmospheric deposition and compliance

Land quality can be adversely affected by air pollutants emitted from sources such as transport, industry and agriculture. The UK National Focal Centre is responsible for compiling national critical loads datasets and maps for the UK⁸. SEPA will use this data to help identify regulated installations which contribute significantly to critical load exceedance, and take appropriate regulatory action to address this.

We will also work with other organisations to address critical load exceedances from sources outside our direct control.

Land treatment using waste and compliance

Spreading wastes on land, such as sewage sludge, composts and industrial wastes, can divert waste from landfill and recover value by adding plant nutrients and improving soil condition. Sustainable application of waste to land without harm to humans, wildlife or our environment is a key component of the implementation of Scotland's National Waste Plan. SEPA will monitor the use of sewage sludge and industrial and commercial wastes on land via inspections, during which we will also promote good practice including pollution reduction at source and the sustainable use of waste.

Land contamination and compliance

SEPA uses its regulatory powers and promotes approved codes of practice to prevent land contamination. Where land is contaminated, local authorities are responsible for securing its remediation to ensure it is suitable for its current use under the Part IIA contaminated land regime and any proposed use under the planning system. SEPA works in partnership with local authorities to ensure that land contamination is assessed and managed in an environmentally sound and sustainable manner. SEPA also has a direct role in bringing about the remediation of Part IIA ‘special sites' in accordance with regulatory standards and in 2005 we expect to see such sites come to SEPA for consideration⁹. This role may be extended to include land affected by radioactive contamination in future.

Biodiversity

SEPA is working towards three land biodiversity targets from the Scottish biodiversity strategy, including biodiversity measures, native woodland and agrienvironment schemes. * List of Biodiversity Actions available here.

7 www.sepa.org.uk/policies.

8 www.critloads.ceh.ac.uk. A critical load is a quantitative estimate of exposure to pollutants, below which significant harmful effects on sensitive elements of the environment do not occur.

9 A special site is contaminated land which meets one of the descriptions in the Contaminated Land (Scotland) Regulations 2000 as required by Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.