UK environmental pollution

Document description

The number of potentially contaminated sites in the UK is estimated at between 50,000 and 100,000, with area estimates of between 50,000 and 120,000 acres. If these sites were to be cleaned up, the maximum estimated cost is of the order of £30 billion, excluding litigation costs and third party claims. Two pieces of recent legislation namely the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (EPA 90) and Water Resources Act (1991), have emphasised the need to control the Contamination of land.Twenty per cent of Europe's biggest companies have been prosecuted for infringing environmental laws. In the UK these include National Power, Mobil Oil, Shell, ICI, Bernard Matthews and a private prosecution of Albright & Wilson. There were over 25,000 reported water pollution cases. in 1988, 38% of cases were attributed to industry and oil pollution represented 60% of the total number of industrial incidents.