Contaminated Sites Remediation Act
The Federal Act on the Financing and Implementation of Contaminated Site Remediation (ALSAG), which has been in force since 1989, forms the legal basis for the collection as well as the financing and implementation of the securing and remediation of contaminated sites in Austria.
The amendment that came into force on January 1, 2025, results in significant changes.
Independent procedure
Until now, measures for the securing or remediation of contaminated sites were commissioned and approved in accordance with the Water Rights Act 1959, the Trade Regulation Act 1994, and the Waste Management Act 2002. Now, independent substantive as well as procedural legal provisions have been incorporated into the ALSAG.
Consideration of site- and use-specific factors
When assessing the risk originating from a former waste deposit or a contaminated site, as well as when defining the remediation objectives for contaminated site measures, site- and use-specific factors are now taken into account in accordance with the repair principle.
Increased transparency through digitalization
In the future, contaminated sites will be presented not in the form of parcel numbers, but through a spatial representation of the contaminated site in a GIS-based online map on the internet. This reduces administrative effort, as not every change in parcel numbers leads to changes in the Contaminated Sites Atlas Ordinance.
Register of suspected contaminated sites goes offline – public access is expanded
From 2025 onwards – in addition to contaminated sites – there will be a public query system for former waste deposits and former industrial sites (cf. § 18 paragraph 4 in conjunction with § 14 paragraph 1 and 3 ALSAG). The register of suspected contaminated sites available in the contaminated sites portal will go offline. This is intended to minimize uncertainties, for example regarding health and commercial risks, and to make information on former waste deposits and former industrial sites comprehensively available to private individuals and investors in the contaminated sites portal.
Mobilization of commercially/industrially previously used brownfield sites
With the ALSAG amendment, a new funding scheme for “former waste deposits and former industrial sites – brownfield sites” has been created as a significant contribution to reducing land consumption in Austria. This promotes the reintegration into the economic cycle of those former waste deposits and former industrial sites that do not reach the threshold of a contaminated site.
Further detailed information on contaminated site remediation can be obtained from the contaminated sites portal. (in German only)