National Strategy and National Plan of 19 August 2015 for the management of contaminated sites in Romania.

This National Strategy and National Plan of 19 August 2015 for the management of contaminated sites in Romania aims to provide an overview of the measures to be taken to investigate the pollution-affected land and surrounding areas and to decide whether it is a "contaminated site", as well as how corrective action will be regulated and validation of the remedied land to protect the receivers. In order to gain experience, the strategy starts from the internationally recognized risk-based approach that must be implemented as such. Over time, additional information and more experience will be accumulated and then translated into an adapted strategy. Thus, the strategy represents a major first step in the elaboration of the entire process of inventory, investigation and remediation of a large number of contaminated sites at national level, as well as for the inventory of sites potentially contaminated or that do not require corrective / remedial actions for their current or planned use. The purpose of this strategy is to set out the principles for the management of contaminated sites by 2015, defined as a short term, to solve the problem of contaminated sites requiring urgent action by 2020, defined as a medium term, and to complete the action by 2050. The general objective of the strategy is to protect human health and the environment from the effects of contaminants resulting from anthropogenic activities while respecting the principles of sustainable development. Specific environmental objectives are: a) reduction of the surface occupied by contaminated sites; b) improving the quality of environmental factors in the location areas and implementing a unitary management at national level. Specific socio-economic objectives are: a) the remediation of the contaminated sites must be done in such a way that an appropriate condition is reached for the planned subsequent use; b) ensuring the protection of water resources, food security and human health; c) promoting the future use of remedied sites for economic and social development to the detriment of removing productive lands from the agricultural and forestry circuit. Specific technical objectives are: a) developing, harmonizing and implementing the legislative framework for remedying contaminated sites and encouraging their reuse as a matter of priority; b) developing the institutional capacity for the management of contaminated sites; c) development of the services market in the field of investigation and remediation of contaminated sites; d) development and application of the best existing techniques, which do not generate excessive costs, for the investigation and remediation of contaminated sites; e) promoting and implementing the concept of acceptable risk. The methodology developed within the Strategy is based on the following principles: 1. the "polluter pays" principle; 2. compliance with European Union rules; 3. the principle of subsidiarity; 4. equal treatment; 5. distribution of tasks; 6. uniform judgment; 7. approach based on acceptable risk; 8. repeated reviews of decisions.
Main economic sectors with an impact on soil, subsoil and groundwater/surface water are as follows: mining and metallurgy; chemical industry; oil industry; old pesticide depots. In addition to these major activities, the environment has been significantly affected by other large-scale activities, such as the metal processing industry, non-compliant household waste dumps, military sites, wood processing industry, power plants on coal, transport activities, service activities and the like. Contaminated sites, from the point of view of property rights, can be divided into privatized sites and state-owned sites. The Romanian State still owns many sites or land parcels known to be contaminated or potentially contaminated. Some of these sites are still operational, for example railway halls, mining units and the like, and others have been abandoned. State-owned sites range from small to industrial complexes. Abandoned sites are also object of this text. An orphan site is considered a site that does not have a legal owner, on which the industrial activity has been abandoned. Orphan sites are generally state-owned industrial facilities that are in poor condition. Various polluting activities took place on most of these sites. By taking into account the provisions of specific environmental legislation and the level of information in the inventory, it was considered necessary to divide these sites into two categories, namely: a) potentially contaminated sites; b) contaminated sites. The legal framework applicable to this Strategy includes both European Union and national legislation. When elaborating the strategy, several normative acts were taken into account as listed in Section 5 “Legal framework” (Chapter III) of this text.