South Korea to add soil pollution standards and inspection fees for Dioxins

On July 29, 2021, the Ministry of Environment (MOE) of South Korea issued a legislative notice for a partial amendment to the Enforcement Rules for the Soil Environment Conservation Act (MOE Ordinance No. 873) and invited public comments by September 7, 2021. The proposed amendment is made to the provisions on dioxins, which are designated as soil pollutants in the Enforcement Rules as amended on November 2018, to establish dioxin soil pollution standards by land type (area) and to allow systematic soil pollution surveys and proper management of contaminated soil.

The Soil Environment Conservation Act was first published on January 5, 1995 (Act No. 4905) with the aim of preventing health and environmental hazards caused by soil pollution and performing proper management and conservation of soil so that all citizens can enjoy a healthy and comfortable life.

The proposed amendment can be summarized as follows.

• Addition of dioxin soil pollution standards (Appendix 3 and Appendix 7)
  Establishment of soil pollution concern standards and soil pollution countermeasure standards against dioxins

Newly added items to Appendix 3 (Soil Pollution Concern Standards [related to Article 1-5])

Newly added items to Appendix 7 (Soil Pollution Countermeasure Standards [related to Article 20])

• Addition of inspection fee against soil pollution by dioxin (Appendix 11)
  Establishment of soil pollution inspection fees against dioxins

Newly added items to Appendix 11 (Soil Pollution Inspection Fee [related to Article 31 Paragraph 2])

The press release by MOE and the proposed amendment can be viewed at:
https://www.epeople.go.kr/cmmn/idea/redirect.do?ideaRegNo=1AE-2107-0003168

Reference:
Enforcement Rules of the Soil Environment Conservation Act
https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/lsInfoP.do?efYd=20201015&lsiSeq=220097#0000