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Soil Environment Assessment
Conflict Prevention System for Soil Remediation.
Is only the person who polluted the land to be responsible for soil remediation? The person who bought in polluted land are also responsible for soil remediation.
Soil environment assessment is an autonomous system between the parties to the real estate transaction that prevents disputes over soil remediation by clarifying responsibility by checking whether the land is contaminated in advance.
In 2018, 1,501,981 m² of soil
exceeded the standard of soil pollution
concern criteria.
Due to the rapid industrial development of Korea since the Japanese colonial period, a large amount of oil and heavy metals have been leaked and it has been neglected to this day.
As a result, soil contamination became a serious social problem, and the government enacted the Soil Environment Conservation Act in 1996 to investigate and clean up contaminated soil.
Afterwards, by the Soil Environment Conservation Act, a soil monitoring network was operated to detect contaminated soil. However the goverment soon found out that it was difficult to find the contaminated site with existing system. In March 2001, the Ministry of Environment revised the Soil Conservation Act by strengthening the legal responsibility of the culprit and implementing the soil environment assessment.
In other words, the revised the Soil Conservation Act provided incentives for the private sector to voluntarily investigate contaminated sites by clarifying the responsibility of soil remediation which can be inherited during land transactions and provided the basis for conducting Soil Environment Assessments at the time of transaction.
Company A, a housing developer, purchased the land to develope the factory site of Company B where a steel production plant had been operated as a residence area.However, after the purchase, the problem of soil contamination at the site was raised by environmental NGOs. Hence, Company A conducted an investigation and found out that there are large-scale landfill waste and soil contamination at the site.Company A, who could not afford the waste treatment cost and the cost of cleaning up contaminated soil, filed a lawsuit against Company B for the responsibility for cleaning up the site, and the development of the site was suspended for a long time, resulting in huge economic losses due to extension of the construction period and soil remediation costs.
As such, in the case of a change in ownership without conducting a Soil Environment Assessment on a site where there is a possibility of contamination, many problems arise as to who is responsible for the remediation of contaminated soil. In worst scenario, if you take over without conducting a Soil Environment Assessment, you may be legally liable for the contamination.
A (42), who was looking for land to use as a residence, purchased the site that had been operated as a production plant. However, after the purchase, the problem of contamination of the site was raised, and as a result of a detailed investigation, a large amount of waste and soil contamination were found within the site. As a result, lawsuits for cleaning and waste treatment costs of 30 billion won were filed, and the development was delayed for several years.
According to data provided by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, in 2017, the size of domestic land transactions amounted to about 2.2 billion square meters. In addition, as the volume of domestic land transactions and the proportion of factory sites and gas stations with a high probability of pollution increase, disputes over the sale of contaminated sites continue to rise.
You may be reluctant to request Soil Environment Assessment due to the time and cost.
However, if soil contamination is found after the purchase of the land, you may be held responsible for the astronomical soil remediation cost.
In addition, as in the case above, land development would be delayed for several years due to a dispute over responsibility for soil remediation.
For a clean environment, as well as to avoid legal dispute, it is essential to undergo a Soil Environment Assessment.
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Real Estate
Transaction -
Company Acquisition
Merger -
Corporate Credit
Evaluation -
Financial Institution
Loan review
before applying for a Soil Environment Assessment!
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01 Soil Environmental
Assessment AgencyA company designated as a Soil Environment Assessment agency
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02Rich Project Experience
A company designated as a Soil Environment Assessment agency
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03Corporate Competency
Companies with Soil Environment Assessment management capability, technical capability and manpower
Companies with Soil Environment Assessment management capability, technical capability and manpower
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04Connectivity
A company that can design and conduct soil remediation in connection with Soil Environment Assessment
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05A company that can
work as an agencyA company that can perform both Soil Environment Assessment and soil remediation on the behalf of customer
A company that can perform both Soil Environment Assessment and soil remediation on the behalf of customer