LEGAL ASPECTS OF REMEDIATION OF CONTAMINATED POST-INDUSTRIAL REAL ESTATE AS INVESTMENT LAND, ON THE EXAMPLE OF POLAND AND GEORGIA

This study presents the legal issues concerning land that has been contaminated to varying degrees by human activity. The contaminated areas refer in particular to sites formerly overexploited for industrial purposes and waste dumps. Te remediation of contaminated areas helps to replenish urban land to create more open and public spaces, provide local services, reduce the need for displacement, and ensure better opportunities for development. Meeting these major challenges on the road to “building a better future” requires investment in sustainable and green regeneration and the construction of new urban infrastructure. Thus, repurposing contaminated areas for urban planning will do more than just solve the problems of the past, but will also help create new opportunities for healthy and sustainable cities in the future. The problem of contaminated land is one of the main environmental policy challenges in the modern world – from a technological, financial and above all legal point of view. The remediation of contaminated sites usually involves considerable costs, which of course means significant problems with the performance of these obligations by those who want to change the use of such land. This article discusses selected problems arising from the legal regulations on remediating contaminated land. Even where the entities responsible can be identified, in many cases public authorities are unable to carry out the remediation for economic or technological reasons. The article explores the current Polish regulations and those of other post-communist countries, using Georgia as an example, and shows the provisions still give insufficient protection to the future users of such land. Hence, the article reviews legal instruments such as keeping records of contamination, along with legal obligations on the part of the landowner as well as of the local authorities where such properties are located. It lists ways of carrying out preventive and remedial measures in relation to environmental damage that has occurred or may occur, as well as historical surface contamination, including the issue of remediation, i.e. the procedure for cleaning up the land. We attempt to assess the legal status and address the problems related to abortive attempts to remediate contaminated land.