Taiwan sets rules of improvement and use by contaminated land parcel 
On May 25,2021, the Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration released the “Working principles of contaminated land improvement and land use by administrative regions”. And on the same day, it came into effect. According to the “Law of soil contamination and groundwater pollution remediation” promulgated in 2000, the contaminated soil and groundwater can be developed after submitting the pollution remediation plan and the designation as contaminated land was lifted. And when the contaminated land has reached the improvement target set by the central government, the designation will be lifted. According to the principle established based on the above provisions, specific rules for contaminated land improvement work were established. And the outline is as follows.
Principles of regional treatment
Regarding the improvement plan of contaminated land, the principle was clearly set that after submitting the regional plan and the specified target has been reached, the region can have one step ahead to take the use of the land. Regarding the above mentioned regional improvement plan, it is necessary to obtain the consent of competent authorities of the municipalities or counties. The business operators can use the profit which acquired from the usage in the region to continuously improve the land. According to the Environmental Protection Administration, the above framework can encourage business operators to actively work on improving and managing the contaminated lands.
Establish the risk management methods for specific use
For some lands, considering it will take a long time to reach the specified standards in improvement according to the backgrounds and other factors, a separate annexed table for specific land use and the related risk management methods is attached in the principle. By taking risk management methods, such as make limitation of the activity scope, to achieve the objective of taking use of the land while preventing exposure to the public. The following are specific use listed in the annexed table.
- Exhibitions/Venue
- Footpath of parks or mountain and etc.
- Renewable energy power generation and related facilities
In the annexed table, it also stipulates the risk management methods for the above specific use, such as prohibiting the use of groundwater, make pavement to prevent contact with the land directly, and setting up buffer zone between the adjacent unimproved land and etc.
For the original text of the above principle, please refer to the following URL (in simplified Chinese).
https://gazette.nat.gov.tw/egFront/detail.do?metaid=124165&log=detailLog
